Emptywheel: Who leaked the 'Principals' meetings?

[deminks]

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/04/10/remember-the-torture-tapes/

(snip)

I'm raising the alternating specificity and vagueness of this story to suggest certain things about its probable purpose. Ask yourself, where did this story come from? Who are the "highly-placed sources" behind this story?

Those who actually received the briefings would be limited to the Principals--who would have no incentive to admit they approved of torture--and their deputies (so, Libby, Stephen Hadley, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, John McLaughlin, and Larry Thompson, then Comey--though given the Administration's habit of excluding Thompson from sensitive details, I wouldn't assume that he was included). I could see Armitage revealing embarrassing details about Cheney, but not ones that implicated Powell; and McLaughlin I'll put aside for the moment. As for the others, at least one of them has been willing to get convicted of a felony rather than rat on his boss, so I doubt they're sources for this story.

Then there are the people who did the briefing: "CIA directors Tenet and later Porter Goss along with agency lawyers." Now we're getting someplace.

Porter Goss, though he hasn't AFAIK gone on the record once during the discussions of the torture tapes, has been feeding regular leaks to the press throughout. And Scott Muller--General Counsel of the CIA until 2004--has told journalists working on the torture tape story that he opposed the destruction of the tapes. John Rizzo--acting General Counsel after Muller left--has been less adept at working the press than Goss and Muller, though he has made it clear that junior lawyers at the CIA, not him, gave Jose Rodriguez the green light to destroy the torture tapes. All three men would be closely questioned in the DOJ investigation of the destruction of the torture tapes.

(end snip)

[Ian David]

1. Rumsfeld, trying to salvage his legacy, is my guess. n/t

[shraby]

2. Did someone keep minutes of the meetings?

I doubt that any of the bigwigs did, so maybe a secretary?

[ThomWV]

4. Actually I'd suspect a 'bigwig' long before a secretary.

Top notch secretaries are as silent as the Sphinx.

[tanyev]

3. Yep, that was what I wondered when I saw the ABC piece.

Who's talking and how well have they protected themselves?