Powerline on those destroyed CIA tapes

Power Line has a two-parter on the subject.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019215.php

As a general matter, destroying tapes of CIA interrogations seems like a good idea. For one thing, it's not in our national security interests for videos showing how we obtain information from top terrorists, and what information we obtained, to be disseminated. In addition, the CIA has a valid interest in keeping the identity of its interrogators secret. Given the extent to which classified, highly sensitive information has been leaked, by 2005 the CIA had good reason to fear that these tapes would, in fact, be disseminated.

On the other hand, the CIA's legitimate policy preferences (and, of course, mine) cannot outweigh any legal obligation it might have had to preserve and/or produce the tapes. The question, then, is whether such an obligation existed. I'm not aware of any statutory obligation, so the issue turns on whether a court, or some other body with similar authority, had ordered that the tapes be preserved or produced. A second and related issue is whether the CIA falsely and knowingly failed to disclose the existence and/or destruction of the tapes under circumstances in which it was obliged to make such disclosure.

I can't tell from the accounts I've read so far what the answers to these questions are. The CIA does say it informed key members of congressional oversight committees about its decision to destroy the tapes, and Democrat Jane Harman, then the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, confirms that the CIA told her.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019228.php

Jose Rodriguez, Jr. is the CIA official who is said to have ordered the destruction of the video tapes that memorialized the interrogation of two leading al Qaeda terrorists. At the time, Rodriguez was the CIA's Director of Clandestine Operations.

That title reminds us that much of what the CIA does is supposed to be clandestine. In essence, the CIA was conceived as an organization that would do secret things to obtain information, and then analyze that information. It was always understood that some of the secret things would be unsavory. It was never understood that the CIA would keep recordings of these actions just in case a court, a congressional committee, or a newspaper might want to take a look. The idea was to win the Cold War, not to create an album.

The image of the Cold War CIA is captured, albeit overdramatically, in the old Mission Impossible show, when the clandestine operative is informed that, if he or any member of his team is caught or captured, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of their actions. Five seconds later, the tape self-destructs. Jose Rodriguez may be wondering where that manufacturer of self-destructing tape was when he needed him.