CIA Tapes & Doing The Right Thing
January 3rd, 2008
By SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist
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“Doing the right thing” is the universal wrench of politics and governance. This is because what constitutes the right thing has more to do with how a pol or public official adjusts the wrench to fit their circumstances — which is to say survive with arms and legs intact if not win points — than the moral high ground.
That so noted, the news that Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed a outside prosecutor aka special counsel for the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the willful destruction of those CIA torture tapes is welcome. But we’re so used to former AG Alberto Gonzales doing the wrong thing with such consistency that I’m having to suspend belief that Mukasey is doing the right thing and not playing a role in a drama with an outcome pre-determined by the White House.
I apologize for my cynicism, but you have to admit that it is well earned. There have been many investigations, criminal and otherwise, of administration officials that have gone nowhere because they were tinged with politics, and the only Bush era precedent for the Mukasey appointment is naming Patrick Fitzgerald to be an independent prosecutor in the Wilson-Plame leak investigation.
Mukasey assigned John H. Durham (photo), a veteran federal prosecutor from Connecticut, to lead the CIA tapes investigation with the FBI.
Durham’s appointment is an indication that there is reason to believe that high-ranking CIA officers, and perhaps other administration officials, may have committed criminal acts in destroying tapes of the 2002 interrogations of two Al Qaeda operatives despite explicit instructions that they be preserved.
The tapes were never provided to the courts or to the September 11 Commission, which had requested all CIA documents related to Al Qaeda prisoners, and the question of whether to destroy them was the subject of deliberations among lawyers at the highest levels of the Bush administration. These lawyers included Gonzalez when he was White House counsel; Harriet Miers, his successor as counsel, and David S. Addington, who was then counsel to Vice President Cheney.
Congressional Democrats had asked Mukasey to appoint an independent prosecutor as Fitzgerald had been, but he refused and Durham’s powers as an outside counsel/special prosecutor will not be as broad.
Fitzgerald’s investigation led to the prosecution of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. President Bush commuted Libby’s sentence after he was convicted.
More here, as well as some other reactions:
Asks Cernig at Newshoggers:
“It’s taken Mukasey less time to decide destroying the tapes is possibly criminal than it has to say clearly that he thinks that the actions shown in them might be. What gives there?”
Tim F. notes at Balloon Juice that:
“I think it is safe to say that the CIA torture tape story just hit the big time. . . .
“The administration will certainly hang out a disposable patsy like CIA division head Jose Rodriguez. If Rodriguez accepts the role of loyal fall guy then it may end there. However, a resulting trial probably wouldn’t finish in time for a Bush pardon.”
Says Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters:
“Durham will not operate as an independent counsel in the manner of Patrick Fitzgerald or Ken Starr. The DoJ will instead do its own work, as it should, in determining whether a crime was committed and who committed it. Durham will have accountability, but also wide latitude to pursue the case. Mukasey went outside of the DC power structure after several recusals allowed him to select the best jurisdiction for the case. Mukasey puts himself on the line through this action, and Congress will hold him accountable.
“Mukasey has proven himself to be a good choice as AG. The DoJ needed to send a statement showing that they understood the seriousness of this issue. Regardless of whether we like the current administration or not, we cannot allow destruction of evidence and obstruction of investigations to go unchallenged.”
Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger report writes:
“It’s often difficult to know for sure how independent a prosecutor is going to be, especially in the Bush administration, but the AP notes that Durham has ‘a reputation as one of the nation’s most relentless prosecutors,’ which he earned ‘as an outside prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the FBI’s use of mob informants in Boston and helped send several Connecticut public officials to prison.’ “
” . . . The Bush administration didn’t exactly need yet another criminal investigation, but it has one anyway. Stay tuned.”
Meanwhile, Steve Gilbert is beside himself at Sweetness and Light:
“This is just what we needed. Another gutless attorney general. Another out of control special prosecutor. And another media circus.
“Never mind there is no crime here, or even the possibility of a crime.”
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 7:17 am and is filed under GWOT, Plamegate, Scooter Libby, Michael Mukasey, Bush Administration, Justice Department, FBI, Alberto Gonzales, Al Qaeda, Scandals, CIA. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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