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You are here: Home / Politics / An Unexamined Scandal / They Are Who We Thought They Were, Part Deux

They Are Who We Thought They Were, Part Deux

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The CIA really, really doesn’t want us to know just how badly it can f**k up:

The CIA inspector general’s office — the spy agency’s internal watchdog — has acknowledged it “mistakenly” destroyed its only copy of a mammoth Senate torture report at the same time lawyers for the Justice Department were assuring a federal judge that copies of the document were being preserved, Yahoo News has learned.

Das_Geheimnis_-_Le_secret

Although other copies of the report exist, the erasure of the controversial document by the CIA office charged with policing agency conduct has alarmed the U.S. senator who oversaw the torture investigation and reignited a behind-the-scenes battle over whether the full unabridged report should ever be released, according to multiple intelligence community sources familiar with the incident. [Via the esteemable Charles Pierce.]

As the aforementioned Mr. Pierce writes

A democracy cannot survive if its people believe they are being played for marks. It can survive for even less time if they turn out to have been right.

Shitty cops are bad enough.  Shitty secret police…

Feh.

Image: Felix Nussbaum, The Secret, 1939

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  3. 3.

    misterpuff

    Eight years on, Bush human IEDs still exist, periodically popping up and announcing their ineptness and *ssholishness

  4. 4.

    The Other Chuck

    Heads need to fucking roll. Or in more concrete terms, there need to be some prison cells occupied for this.

  5. 5.

    Tom Levenson

    @Gin & Tonic: I prefer the archaic here (a) because I’m that kind of guy and (b) because of the first definition of estimable. I always trip over it when I type it, so I decided a while back that I’d go all get offa my lawn, etymologically speaking.

  6. 6.

    singfoom

    “Mistakes were made.” So, who thinks that nobody will be held accountable for this, especially anyone high up? Don’t all raise your hands at once.

    Did they hire Mr. Bean to look after the records?

  7. 7.

    A Ghost To Most

    Were they aware that additional copies existed?

    Eta At the time of destruction

  8. 8.

    ? Martin

    This dad says to release the report unredacted as a deterrent against future ‘carelessness’.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    When I’m President one day, the Inspectors General will have Inspectors General.

  15. 15.

    The Other Chuck

    @Baud: We got a really faulty batch of Generals if they need that much constant inspection.

  17. 17.

    Ruckus

    Can anyone point me to anything positive that the CIA has accomplished in it’s lifetime?
    Don’t even need a list, just one thing.

  18. 18.

    debbie

    It didn’t work for Nixon; it shouldn’t work for this IG either. I assume this IG isn’t the IG who’s been critical of Obama.

  20. 20.

    Prescott Cactus

    It was the only paper copy?
    It wasn’t on anyone’s hard drive ?
    Never in a system back-up?
    Never e-mailed between two people so that it passed thru a server ?

    No problem sending a guys i-phone to Israel to crack it open, but we can honestly tell you that the report that show’s our own agency involvement in torture has disappeared.

    Everybody out, close the door, lock the building and everybody gets 26 weeks of Unemployment.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    AFAIK, the CIA is actually pretty good at analyzing countries and having a decent idea of what’s going on internally. What they suck at — and yet insist on doing — is all of the dumbass “black ops” stuff to try and affect events in other countries.

    People who think that the CIA is running everything have far more confidence in their competence than I do. So far, history shows us that the CIA fucks up every time they try to actively intervene somewhere.

  22. 22.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was listening to some old Firesign Theater the other day and now it all just fits:

    “Help, its the police!” POLICE STATE! Today’s episode: The Dog Ate Our Homework!

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @Mnemosyne: If you mean criminal penalties, there would be no liability if there is no criminal law against negligently destroying documents. Many laws require intent before liability attaches.

  25. 25.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Meh. It looks like they updated the story:

    While another copy of the report exists elsewhere at the CIA, the erasure of the controversial document by the office charged with policing agency conduct has alarmed the U.S. senator who oversaw the torture investigation and reignited a behind-the-scenes battle over whether the full unabridged report should ever be released, according to multiple intelligence community sources familiar with the incident.

    It sounds like the IG’s office messed up. It’s hardly in their interest to destroy evidence, so it was most likely just a mistake.

    Also, too, from March:

    Judges considered Thursday whether the Freedom of Information Act requires the CIA and other federal agencies to process requests for release of the full 6,963-page Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA interrogation practices that critics call torture.

    Two D.C. Circuit appeals court judges, Sri Srinivasan and Harry Edwards, heard oral arguments in the American Civil Liberties Union’s appeal of an unfavorable lower court ruling. A third seat was empty due to Judge Merrick Garland’s Wednesday nomination to the Supreme Court.

    Srinivasan, considered one of the front-runners for the nomination that went to Garland, took the lead in questioning attorneys and nodded supportively to show he grasped both sides of a technical, case law-dependent dispute.

    A 499-page executive summary of the Senate committee report was released with redactions in 2014, revealing jarring accounts of weeklong sleep deprivation, waterboarding and use of purported medical procedures like “rectal feeding.”

    The ACLU says the full document is a landmark work of oversight that could help ensure the U.S. never again uses harsh tactics tolerated during the George W. Bush administration, but Obama administration attorneys say there’s no avenue for its acquisition through FOIA.

    At issue is whether the report became a FOIA-eligible “agency record” after being sent to the CIA and other federal agencies. Congressional records are exempt from FOIA, but courts have found under certain circumstances they can lose protected status.

    Though it’s difficult to predict rulings from oral arguments, Edwards made clear his skepticism of the ACLU’s position, saying the Senate committee was “very clear” about claiming authority over the report in 2009, in a communication to the CIA when research was underway.

    […]

    If the ACLU wins, the report won’t immediately be released. The case likely would be remanded to a lower court judge who would monitor agencies’ processing of FOIA requests. If the full report is found subject to FOIA, it’s very likely large swaths will be withheld on national security grounds anyhow.

    But even a heavily redacted document could offer surprises or at least a more complete picture than was laid out in the executive summary. Many people associated with CIA detainee cases aren’t able to discuss them, according to an attorney for Guantanamo Bay detainee Majid Khan – who the executive summary revealed had a platter of raisins, nuts, pasta and hummus pureed and involuntarily inserted into his rectum. Wells Dixon, Khan’s attorney, said his client had been subjected to rape and torture with “the longest, widest tube that they could [find],” but was legally prohibited from discussing nonpublic incidents of alleged mistreatment suffered by Khan and his other Guantanamo clients.

    I don’t know if anything about that case has changed since March.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Baud: Thanks. It would have been amazing if they had won. Judges are usually very reluctant to tread into the national security arena and reverse administrations and Congress on their decisions.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  31. 31.

    Prescott Cactus

    @Baud: I got distracted by the weird painting and scrolled right into the comments. The one guy looks like a clown.

    @LAO: I’d be in prison

  37. 37.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Not sure of their analyzing skills if it leads them to think they can physically intervene and then to fuck up so badly. Over and over. And over and over……… And if it leads them to think they are above the law and human decency.
    The military has the concept of not having to obey an unlawful order. You better be right when you disobey that order but it is one of the main things they tell you in boot camp. You have a responsibility that is bigger than the chain of command. Alan talked about this the other day, it is taken seriously. Apparently nothing like that at the CIA.

  38. 38.

    ThresherK

    Chuck Todd is on Jeopardy! “Power Players” tournament.

    But wait, there’s less! S.E. Cupp, too!

    I’m rooting for Jonathan Franzen, basically by default.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    Analysis and black ops are two completely different skill sets. You can know who all of the different players are and still make utterly stupid decisions about what action to take. IMO, analysis is way more useful for diplomacy and negotiations.

  42. 42.

    Prescott Cactus

    At what pay grade do you come up with ideas like this ?

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    From March:
    “. . .Many people associated with CIA detainee cases aren’t able to discuss them, according to an attorney for Guantanamo Bay detainee Majid Khan – who the executive summary revealed had a platter of raisins, nuts, pasta and hummus pureed and involuntarily inserted into his rectum. . . ”

    They also forgot the avocado.

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    The ghost of Rose Mary Woods wanders the passageways of the C.I.A.

    Who knew?

    :)

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    This is true, they are separate. But the leadership isn’t. The information given to people that have to make decisions isn’t separated. So I’m going to assume that the leadership is defective. And as the fish usually stinks from the head but the whole fish still smells, I’m still going with – What has the CIA ever accomplished that is positive?

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @NotMax: A few years ago, my parents went to see Arlo Guthrie in concert. Before performing the song, Arlo noted the eerie coincidence that the missing Watergate tape time was almost exactly the length of Alice’s Restaurant. #whatweretheyreallyhiding?

  51. 51.

    piratedan

    @ThresherK: hopefully they’re showing Chuck Todd blank screens, since he’s not supposed to provide answers, just hold up a microphone and nod….

  52. 52.

    Patricia Kayden

    @ThresherK: She spoke in favor of marriage equality so I give her a little credit for that. Hope Todd loses though. Cannot stand him.

  55. 55.

    burnspbesq

    @? Martin:

    It’s protected from disclosure under multiple FOIA exemptions. However, some CIA folks seem pretty clearly to be in contempt of court. They might prefer jail time to being locked in a room with the DOJ lawyers they made look foolish in front of a judge.

  56. 56.

    L Boom

    @? Martin: I suspect so, but is there anything in particular that prompted this comment? There’s a great deal of speculation within the BC community for sure.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    Long read for when time permits. Frank Rich:

    Can we please retire the notion that Donald Trump is hijacking someone else’s party?
    [snip]
    The conventional wisdom that Trump is “destroying” the GOP may prove as wrongheaded as the assumption in 1964 that Barry Goldwater had done the same. Win or lose, Trump, like Goldwater, may be further hastening the party’s steady consolidation rightward. For all their blustery threats of third-party campaigns, defections to Hillary, and other acts of rebellion, Republican elites in the political game are more likely to bend to Trump than the other way around, no matter how many conservative op-ed columnists beg them not to do so. They still want to preserve any shred of power they can, and to do that, they must pitch in and try to win.…

    From this past March, but no less savvy today.

  59. 59.

    Davebo

    @Mnemosyne:

    Well seeing as how the people that did the things documented in the report didn’t face charges I’d say that question answers itself.

  60. 60.

    Davebo

    It could be a bit unfair to blame the CIA.

    Whether they are assassinating foreign leaders, torturing prisoners or accidentally destroying a document describing that torture, they just do what they are told to do.

  62. 62.

    jg

    @Ruckus:

    Operation Mockingbird. Terrible program but continues to work in accordance with design. See: 11/22/63 to current.

  63. 63.

    James E Powell

    I’m thinking Three Days of the Condor

    Higgins: Hey Turner! How do you know they’ll print it? You can take a walk… but how far if they don’t print it?
    Turner: They’ll print it.
    Higgins: How do you know?

  64. 64.

    Chris

    @Mnemosyne:

    AFAIK, the CIA is actually pretty good at analyzing countries and having a decent idea of what’s going on internally. What they suck at — and yet insist on doing — is all of the dumbass “black ops” stuff to try and affect events in other countries.

    That’s my understanding as well. Logical, since the primary purpose of an intelligence agency is to gather and analyze information. Except somehow it’s become assumed that they’re supposed to do black ops.

    I wonder if it’s not partly due to a national leadership that thinks in two-year, four-year, or at most six-year increments. Intelligence gathering is dull, boring, tedious, slow work. Involves things like recruiting a half dozen lower newly minted officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and then keeping in touch with them for the next twenty years until hopefully one of them rises high enough to start being really useful to you. Not much percentage in that, if you’re a politician. Overthrowing a government in Iran or arming a revolution in Afghanistan is faster and more high profile work, and sure, there may be blowback down the line, but you’ll probably be long out of office by then.

  66. 66.

    Miss Bianca

    @Prescott Cactus: It’s an amazing coincidence – you know, the shredder just happened to be running, and I just happened to trip over the dog and OOPS!

    It’s the sort of thing that could happen to anyone, really.

  67. 67.

    Procopius

    @Mnemosyne: I dunno, they weren’t too good at analyzing what was going on in East Germany in 1989 or in the Soviet Union in 1991. In fact they seem to have been taken completely by surprise. During the Vietnam Excursion when it became known they were helping the Nung smuggle heroin to sell to GIs, they were called Caught In the Act. They’ve been pretty successful at supporting right wing dictatorships and organizing coups d’etat against center-left governments (which they always declare to be Communist, or at least Communist-dominated). In my opinion those “successes” have actually been pretty harmful to the nation, but I guess it’s been what the State Department wanted.

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