the new declarations almost completely solidify allegations of a plethora of substantial crimes including obstruction of justice, obstruction of Congressional process, false statements to Congress, false material statements to multiple Federal courts, destruction of evidence of a governmental crime, conspiracy and, of course, torture/war crimes. CIA And Bushco Have A Rather Large Criminal Obstruction Problem: The Torture Tapes Come Home To Roost
By: bmaz Thursday April 24, 2008 8:05 am
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It turns out that the CIA and the Bush Justice Department, the vaunted OLC no less, knew full well that the tapes were directly and specifically material and germane to "inevitable criminal, administrative or civil investigations". Oops, now that is a little different than the initial stories pitched by the Administration isn't it?
And exactly how specific and deep was the knowledge of the critical materiality of the Torture Tapes? Again, from Eggen: The documents indicate that lawyers at the CIA and elsewhere were aware that CIA personnel might be subject to criminal prosecution or other legal sanctions....
The records submitted to the court list and briefly describe dozens of communications between the CIA and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, or OLC. At least 10 were in 2004, five were in 2005, and seven were in 2006; virtually all were classified "top secret" or even more restricted.
"The CIA's purpose in requesting advice from OLC was the very likely prospect of criminal, civil, or administrative litigation against the CIA and CIA personnel who participate in the Program," said a declaration from Ralph S. DiMaio, information review officer for the CIA's clandestine service. He added that the CIA considered such proceedings "to be virtually inevitable." (Emphasis added).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042303249.html?hpid=moreheadlines It appears as if the new declarations in the FOIA lawsuit pretty much obliterate any Bush Administration pretensions of good faith belief that there was no reasonable materiality, nor potential evidentiary value, in the Torture Tapes. Correspondingly,
the new declarations almost completely solidify allegations of a plethora of substantial crimes including obstruction of justice, obstruction of Congressional process, false statements to Congress, false material statements to multiple Federal courts, destruction of evidence of a governmental crime, conspiracy and, of course, torture/war crimes. I suspect we will be discussing the specific circumstances and elements of the individual crimes quite soon.
more at:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/04/24/cia-and-bushco-have-a-rather-large-criminal-obstruction-problem-the-torture-tapes-come-home-to-roost/#more-2067Balkin has a collection of the actual court documents:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2008/04/torture-papers.html
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