Negroponte: Those Torture Tapes Just Slipped My Mind

[babylonsister]

Negroponte: Destroyed Torture Tapes? I Don't Remember
By Paul Kiel - February 14, 2008, 12:24PM

Late last year, Newsweek added a significant wrinkle to the CIA's destroyed torture tapes scandal. Then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte had apparently "strongly advised against" destroying the tapes in a memo, "the only known documentation that a senior intel official warned that the tapes should not be destroyed." That potentially meant trouble for Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA official who ordered the tapes destroyed.

But, during an interview with WNYC's Brian Lehrer yesterday, Negroponte said that he'd totally forgotten about that whole destroyed tapes thing before the scandal blew up in December of last year. He doesn't dispute having written the reported memo, but seems to be baffled that the tapes have become such an issue:

Until this issue was written about I had frankly forgotten that this issue might have existed in any way, shape or form. And apparently what these emails suggest is that somebody had suggested to me that these tapes first of all existed and secondly that they be destroyed, and apparently the emails suggest that I objected to that, that I said I didn’t think that would be a good idea. Now some people will say “how can you possibly not vividly remember something like this?” And the fact of the matter is that one handles and deals with so many different issues in any given day or time, I just didn’t happen to recall this situation.

Apparently Negroponte was immune from the anxiety at the CIA that the agency "could be publicly shamed and that those involved in waterboarding and other extreme interrogation techniques would be hauled before a grand jury or a congressional inquiry."

more...

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/_negroponte_destroyed_torture.php

[williesgirl]

1. What the hell else was he seeing that made torture tapes forgettable? Scary. rec'd

[riderinthestorm]

2. Gee, he has the same memory as Gonzo about atty firings, and Libby about treason, and...

of course Negroponte doesn't "remember" anything about torture. It's THE defense for this Admin.

:argh:

[DCKit]

6. How many who "forgot" were hanged after the Nuremberg trials?

Most of them were "just following orders", but either excuse constitutes nothing less than a complete abrogation of personal responsibility.

I wonder which outfit and shoes Condi will wear to the Hague.

[donkeyotay]

3. Aw, don't feel bad. Condi forgot the rationalization for war was wrong.

Sorreeee. We all forgot. Being Republican means never having to take responsibility.

[Supersedeas]

4. the emails...the emails suggested that the tapes existed and that he objected...the emails!?!

[bluesmail]

5. Rumsfeldspeak

[mikeytherat]

7. Translation: "I masturbate to so much torture porn it all blurs together."

"I mean, when you've seen 'Dubya Debases Detainees 1-17,' well they all start to look the same."

mikey_the_rat

[spanone]

8. the bu$hits have selective memory......i call bullshit

[donheld]

9. Maybe some waterboarding will jog his feeble memory n/t