*nods* I’ve experienced this before in the corporate world. Orders to make copies of one legitimate copy of Lotus software and to load the copies to lots and lots of pc’s. I asked the administration to provide a memo from the legal advisor attesting to the legality of the act requested. Of course the administration had not retained John Yoo nor could it control the Justice Department so I didn’t get the memo.

It makes you wonder where the tapes are? Have they been incinerated or have they been encased in cement and are now sitting on the bottom of the ocean?

Since the “tapes” were presumably in digital form, whether the original physical tapes were destroyed or not is of no great importance as long as there is a digital copy of them someplace or other (except possibly for chain of custody issues).

My pet theory of the moment? That when the CIA brass actually got to read the memos, they got that sinking feeling in their stomachs b/c the memos are so clearly unsupported by law, that they panicked and destroyed the tapes.

This is ONLY a THEORY

They say they destroyed the tapes. But knowing (by reputation, I have no personal first-hand knowledge) the way these guys seem to work, I’m dead sure they have a copy stashed away in a server someplace (presumably overseas). So they could be in deep trouble for claiming they destroyed the tapes when in fact they didn’t.

Oh the irony of it all.

So, did they destroy the tapes because they know that these memos are so bad that they will not trigger the immunity provision of the Detainee Treatment Act?

Are you referring to Section 1004 of the DTA, which reads:

SEC. 1004. PROTECTION OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL ENGAGED IN AUTHORIZED INTERROGATIONS.

(a) Protection of United States Government Personnel- In any civil action or criminal prosecution against an officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States Government who is a United States person, arising out of the officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent’s engaging in specific operational practices, that involve detention and interrogation of aliens who the President or his designees have determined are believed to be engaged in or associated with international terrorist activity that poses a serious, continuing threat to the United States, its interests, or its allies, and that were officially authorized and determined to be lawful at the time that they were conducted, it shall be a defense that such officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent did not know that the practices were unlawful and a person of ordinary sense and understanding would not know the practices were unlawful. Good faith reliance on advice of counsel should be an important factor, among others, to consider in assessing whether a person of ordinary sense and understanding would have known the practices to be unlawful.

If so, on Monday I understood you to completely dismiss that provision as “SOOO craptastic” that it would have no weight in court. Here’s the full exchange:

Me: http://firedoglake.com/2008/04…..nt-1388251

You: http://firedoglake.com/2008/04…..nt-1388290

Me: http://firedoglake.com/2008/04…..nt-1388395

You: http://firedoglake.com/2008/04…..nt-1388457

Me: http://firedoglake.com/2008/04…..nt-1389024

Every excuse for destroying the tapes has failed to hold water. As Sherlock Holmes told us, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left – no matter how unlikely – must be the truth.”

I know it is highly unlikely that a Republican President and his staff would conspire to commit criminal acts, then destroy the evidence and deny the crimes. But it must be the truth. No other narrative explains the behavior of all involved.

And another thing, I know it’s been mentioned before. I keep seeing references to the tapes’ destruction. Has anyone asked to see, say, DVDs, video recordings, digital files, archive tapes, audio recordings, edit copies, backups, any recordings kept on computer hard drives, removable media, written transcriptions, still photographs, digital photographs, etc. etc, etc? I keep hoping and praying that there are still some stray snippets out there on someone’s laptop, and that these will make it to YouTube or wikileaks.org before the statute of limitations runs out.