Destroying two video tapes = end of democracy?

A short quiz: You are working as a news editor. Two stories pop up on the wire at the same time. Which one would you headline first?

a) A female suicide bomber detonates herself and kills 16 people in Muqdadiya, Iraq

b) The CIA destroys two videotapes that possibly recorded illegal interrogation on two suspects

If you were me, you would choose (a) (story here). If you are CNN, the BBC, Fox News (yes the "conservative" Fox News), and virtually every other major media outlet, you pick (b) instead; the CIA videotape story dominated all headlines on Friday, Dec 7, and continued as a major story throughout the weekend. I suppose the reasoning goes: who cares about the deaths of 16 nameless Arabs when you can hint at another Bush scandal?

But who am I to argue - according to all the experts, this "scandal" (even though it has nothing to do with Bush - yet) is really, really important. It may be the biggest scandal of all time. It may just turn our nation upside down. Really. Just ask the "pros". In no particular order:

1) According to Andrew Sullivan, this means the USA is now a "banana republic" and in order to "prove" his point, he posts a photo of a prisoner Abu Gharaib - the same one he has posted to his site no less than a dozen times!

2) Sen. Edward Kennedy compared the incident to the Watergate scandal, and along with other Democrats, demanded (another) official investigation. On the Huffington Post, he calls the news "startling" and, of course he's going to "demand answers", because you can't make a good show of faux outrage without "demanding answers" from somebody.

3) The World Socialist Web Site calls it "the brazen criminality of the Bush administration" and underscores the "immense dangers [the Bush administration] represents to the democratic rights of the people".

4) And of course, Crooks and Liars & Keith Olbermann, those ever-objective searchers for justice, do everything they can to link this to the Bush administration, and claim "multiple levels of crimes in play".

5) I can always count on John Cole at Balloon Juice to overreact by several degrees of magnitude, and he doesn't disappoint here. Of these two destroyed tapes, he says: "Welcome to the DPRK" (Democratic People's Republic of Korea - aka North Korea).

6) Think Progress appears to be astonished that Bush claims he didn't know the tapes were destroyed. Doesn't the President handle every document, every photo, and every tape of every interrogation?

7) Finally, kind of a groupthink of "experts" on Digg.com, which has covered this story on their front page no less than three times (maybe more).

Anyway, aside from the ludicrous theory that Bush is personally responsible for managing the disposition on every single prisoner we hold, there is another fly in the ointment for people trying to pin this all on the President. The White House counsel advised the CIA against destroying any tapes. Ooops! Better find another high-level target; I know, let's blame Rove for this one...

Look, here's the reality. If the CIA was ordered not to destroy those tapes, or if there was any reason to believe the tapes would be subpoenaed or entered into court evidence, then destroying them would be a crime. But keep in mind that classified materials are normally disposed of after a certain amount of time. According to the Washington Post, the tapes were destroyed three years after they were made - plenty of time to be entered into evidence if anyone had asked for them. Moreover, has anyone pointed to a legal theory over why the CIA was required to keep them in the first place? If they aren't required by law to tape all interrogations, then certainly they aren't required to hold on to those tapes either.

And changing the subject, I have another question - what about responsible use of government resources? Why destroy the tapes? Why not just copy over them and use them again?

Or why not just get with the 21st century and go digital?

For those of a conspiracy theory bent, David Frum at Free Republic comes up with an alternate theory about why the tapes were destroyed. It's a little far-fetched, but far less so than some of the grandstanders above...





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