C.I.A. Destroys Videotape Evidence of Torture

Every state in the Union, plus the District of Columbia has laws on their books banning the destruction of evidence. That’s normally called “obstruction of justice”. The Federal Government has a similar statute for situations where Federal Courts have jurisdiction. In any trial, in any courthouse in America, a party destroying evidence suffers the sting of having that misdeed offered against them because it’s legally considered “evidence of a guilty conscience.”

Against that backdrop, consider the recent admission by Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) director, Michael Hayden, that the Agency destroyed videotapes of C.I.A. interrogations of highly prized terror suspects. The Agency did so despite being warned not to do so by one of the few members of Congress who knew of the tapes existence, Jane Harman (a Democratic Representative from California), who sat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Mind you, the 9/11 Commission was never shown the tapes and the Congressional Committees that held hearings on the C.I.A.’s response to 9/11 and the lead-up to the Iraq War were also never given the tapes. The Agency kept the tapes in-house and then destroyed them once it appeared they might someday be used as evidence in a criminal prosecution.

The excuse now being given for the destruction of the tapes rings hollow: To protect the interrogators and their families.

First of all, the Bush Administration identified covert C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame without a second thought when it suited their desire to smear her husband.

Next, since torture was and still is a crime in the United States, if the interrogators engaged in torture, they and their family members are do no protection by the government for the interrogator’s misdeeds.

What’s obvious from this whole affair, is that interrogators with the C.I.A. engaged in torture and the tapes were destroyed to prevent anyone from proving it by videotape. Destroying evidence shows consciousness of guilt in anyone’s book, and that applies to the C.I.A. as well!