[302] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Data Retention and Drowning: CIA Taped Torture
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Thu Dec 6 20:06:28 2007
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Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:36:47 -0800
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Data Retention and Drowning: CIA Taped Torture Sessions
-- Then Destroyed the Tapes
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000335.html
Greetings. Washington is hot to trot on the concept of forcing
massive invasive data retention by ISPs, telephone companies, and
all manner of other services, in the interests we're told of
fighting terrorism and crime.
But what's demanded of ordinary citizens obviously doesn't count for
the powers-that-be, even when it comes to matters of great import.
First, we learned that the White House mysteriously lost vast
numbers of e-mails that were mandated to be retained by law.
Penalty so far? Zip.
Now comes word that CIA videotaped some of their torture sessions,
and then -- apparently after a few chuckles reviewing the vids --
destroyed them
( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/washington/06cnd-intel.html ).
CIA claims that the tapes were liquidated (but one wonders, are
*all* copies really gone?) to avoid retaliation by adversaries who
might identify the torturers if the tapes leaked.
That's the party line. But the real reason for the purported
elimination was obviously to help avoid the risk of successful
criminal prosecutions for using interrogation techniques such as
waterboarding, which have long been illegal under international
agreements and U.S. military law.
This isn't rocket science. These guys aren't idiots -- far from
it. The only conceivable reason that such key evidence would be
destroyed would be concerns about personally ending up in orange
jumpsuits.
Congress will probably end up giving the administration a pass on
this, just as they have for pretty much everything else from the
Bush gang. But as far as I'm concerned, a crook is a crook, whether
they operate out of a back alley in the red light district, or from
an office in Langley.
Disgusting.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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