[link repaired by moderator]

We’ll be thinking about you and your son, keep us posted ok?

[after quoting jane mayer’s article on how clinton is respsonsible for starting the whole “extraordinary rendition” (kidnapping, flying the suspect to egypt to be tortured and/or executed]… i used to wonder why there were no investigations into the black sites, extraordinary rendition an torture once the dems won control of congress. then i realized, they probably weren’t just covering up for bush – they were covering up for themselves too.

wild-assed guessing without even having read the article… (just the dkos diary):

this article is pushback and a warning from the administration to the dems in congress – follow through on the investigations you are calling for (destroyed torture tapes, etc) and we will take you down with us.

if i’m right, the anonymous sources will be republicans or their supporters. will be interesting to read the whole thing – when does it come out?

Here’s my logic. The only individuals familiar with what these individuals actually saw in the briefing would be the participants themselves. The programs are so secret that the complaints regarding them are not even typed up by staffers, they are handwritten. Recall that Rockefeller complained about the FISA violations regarding domestic surveillance and wrote a copy of his own letter so that he could use it later.

So the fact that the briefing was made by a “virtual tour”, that it included waterboarding, who the Congressional Leaders who were present, the details of discussion means that the “sources” were individuals who were actually present. Roberts, according to the article, was not available for comment. I doubt Rockefeller would be the source (nor his predecessor Graham…who has denied being given any such information about waterboarding in any case). Pelosi wouldn’t be the source. That leaves only one Congressional source.

PORTER GOSS. And Goss later became CIA Director during the critical period when the recordings were destroyed. He was the one responsible for the appointment of Jose Rodriguez, the “model for Jack Bauer”, who destroyed the tapes. He was the one that forced the resignations or firings of dozens of CIA officers in the operations division because they were “not aggressive enough” in dealing with al Qaida and terrorism.

He’s gonna be one that most likely authorized the destruction of the tapes, me thinks. So we have a source who would be very intent on suggesting that no one objected to the torture. And note the careful phrasing.

a congressional source familiar with Pelosi’s position on the matter said the California lawmaker did recall discussions about enhanced interrogation. The source said Pelosi recalls that techniques described by the CIA were still in the planning stage — they had been designed and cleared with agency lawyers but not yet put in practice — and acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time.

Hmm! How could a Congressional Source KNOW what Pelosi did or didn’t do AT THE TIME. How would they KNOW what she was familiar with? Remember that this was strictly classified information. The only “source” who could even have had a chance to know whether she had said anything at the meeting who appears to be talking is PORTER GOSS. Add to this fact that he would be the only one to know if Pelosi wrote a letter of complaint, as CIA Director (if he actually looked at the files and the WH provided him with it).

This reminds me a little bit of the effort that Scooter Libby tried to use to make himself up as a “Congressional aide”.

Who is the “second official” then? My suspicion is, since there needs to be a confirming source, is that this represents the CIA official who briefed the Congressional Intelligence Committee representatives. That would be someone who directed the torture interrogation programs. Rodriguez was “unavailable for comment” so perhaps it was one of the interrogators themselves. Amazing that they would be talking to the media when the whole rationale behind this was to protect their identities! The risk was supposedly to come from the carefully proscribed court process? Seems that this doesn’t fall under the “protected source” criteria that Congress just authorized for “reporter-source” protection, BTW.

So why would a CIA official even risk reporting this unless they themselves were one of those under threat of Prosecution…as all of this would have come out during any sort of trial IF TRUE.

But here we appear to have two individuals very concerned about covering up their own roles in the destruction of the tapes. appearing as sources asserting that Pelosi and either Rockefeller or Graham were informed about waterboarding and made no objections. That certainly diminishes their reliability, and I’m surprised that the WashPo doesn’t see that.

Maybe Pelosi will insist that the CIA release the Virtual Tour to Congress, and investigate just who is sourcing all this material.

BTW Recall that Mukasey is running his own investigation of the CIA’s Inspector General who is looking into just such criminal activities by the CIA. The IG was the one that initially brought the tapes to the attention of the courts.