Now we can blame it on the lawyers and not the CIA?

[babylonsister]

Destruction of C.I.A. Tapes Cleared by Lawyers

By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE
Published: December 11, 2007

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 — Lawyers within the clandestine branch of the Central Intelligence Agency gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda, according to a former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the episode.

The involvement of agency lawyers in the decision making would widen the scope of the inquiries into the matter that have now begun in Congress and within the Justice Department. Any written documents are certain to be a focus of government investigators as they try to reconstruct the events leading up to the tapes’ destruction.

The former intelligence official acknowledged that there had been nearly two years of debate among government agencies about what to do with the tapes, and that lawyers within the White House and the Justice Department had in 2003 advised against a plan to destroy them. But the official said that C.I.A. officials had continued to press the White House for a firm decision, and that the C.I.A. was never given a direct order not to destroy the tapes.

“They never told us, ‘Hell, no,’” he said. “If somebody had said, ‘You cannot destroy them,’ we would not have destroyed them.”

The former official spoke on condition of anonymity because there is a continuing Justice Department inquiry into the matter. He said he was sympathetic to Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., the former chief of the clandestine branch, who has been described by intelligence officials as having authorized the destruction of the tapes. The former official said he was concerned that Mr. Rodriguez was being unfairly singled out for blame in the destruction of the tapes.

The former official said Mr. Rodriguez decided in November 2005 that he had sufficient authority to destroy the interrogation videos, based on the written authorization given to him from lawyers within the branch, then known as the Directorate of Operations.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/washington/11intel.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1197381837-QJJe8UIQ2VjhotQhF4v5Pg

[spanone]

1. Let's put the blame where it belongs: White House

[zabet]

3. Exactly!! nt

[maddezmom]

2. yes, the WH lawyers, DOJ and NSC

"This isn't something done willy nilly. This isn't something where an agency officer just wakes up in the morning and decides he's going to carry out an enhanced technique on a prisoner," he said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "This was a policy made at the White House, with concurrence from the National Security Council and Justice Department."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_go_co/cia_videotapes

[EFerrari]

4. The first story was that Rodriguez acted alone. I guess it didn't fly.

How long before we get to Dick Cheney? Wanna bet? I don't think the intelligence community is going to take any more falls for BushCo.