In Dick Cheney’s lessons from history… I began to list some of the examples from Vice President Cheney’s past that he carried through into his Vice Presidency which might have been models for those under him. There were other examples for Jose Rodriguez [who ordered the CIA Tapes destroyed on November 9, 2005] – for example, President Bush’s absent military records. But as for more specific factors, we’ve already noted that the tapes were destroyed only days after the Washington Post broke the story identifying the CIA "black sites." But there was something else that also immediately antedated the tape destruction – the indictment of Cheney’s Chief of Staff:
On October 28, 2005, as a result of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Special Counsel Fitzgerald indicted [I. Lewis "Scooter"] Libby on five counts: one count of obstruction of justice two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury. Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby had told FBI investigators that he first heard of Mrs. Wilson’s CIA employment from Cheney, and then later heard it from journalist Tim Russert, and acted as if he did not have that information. The indictment alleges that statements to federal investigators and the grand jury were intentionally false, in that Libby had numerous conversations about Mrs. Wilson’s CIA employment, including his conversations with Judith Miller, before speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Mrs. Wilson’s CIA employment; prior to talking with such reporters, Libby knew with certainty that she was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that she worked for the CIA without making any disclaimer that he was uncertain of that fact. The false statements counts in the Libby indictment charge that he intentionally made those false claims to the FBI; the perjury counts charge that he intentionally lied to the grand jury in repeating those false claims; and the obstruction of justice count charges that Libby intentionally made those false statements in order to mislead the grand jury, thus impeding Fitzgerald’s grand jury investigation of the truth about the leaking of Mrs. Wilson’s then-classified, covert CIA identity.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had indicted the Vice President’s Chief of Staff after jailing Reporter Judith Miller for withholding evidence. Fitzgerald meant business, and that can’t have been lost on Rodriguez who knew that the CIA was sitting on an as yet secret time bomb – the Interrogation Tapes. Recall that at the time of the interrogations, Rodriguez was at the CIA/CTC and had been involved with bringing Jessen and Mitchell on board as contractors. But the big example for Rodriguez was from the Reagan years – the Iran-Contra Affair and Colonel Ollie North:
The scandal was compounded when Oliver North destroyed or hid pertinent documents between November 21 and November 25, 1986. During North’s trial in 1989, his secretary, Fawn Hall, testified extensively about helping North alter, shred, and remove official United States National Security Council documents from the White House. According to The New York Times, enough documents were put into a government shredder to jam it. North’s explanation for destroying some documents was to protect the lives of individuals involved in Iran and Contra operations. It wasn’t until years after the trial that North’s notebooks were made public, and only after the National Security Archive and Public Citizen sued the Office of the Independent Council under the Freedom of Information Act.
During the trial North testified that on November 21, 22, or 24, he witnessed Poindexter destroy what may have been the only signed copy of a presidential covert-action finding that sought to authorize CIA participation in the November 1985 Hawk missile shipment to Iran. US Attorney General Edwin Meese admitted on November 25 that profits from weapons sales to Iran were made available to assist the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. On the same day, John Poindexter resigned, and Oliver North was fired by President Reagan. Poindexter was replaced by Frank Carlucci on December 2, 1986.
In his expose Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987, journalist Bob Woodward chronicles the role of the CIA in facilitating the transfer of funds from the Iran arms sales to the Nicaraguan Contras spearheaded by Oliver North. Then Director of the CIA, William J. Casey, admitted to Woodward in February 1987 that he was aware of the diversion of funds to the contras confirming a number of encounters documented by Woodward. The admission occurred while Casey was hospitalized for a stroke. On May 6, 1987 William Casey died the day after Congress began its public hearings on the Iran-contra affair.
In return for his testimony, Ollie North was granted immunity. In much of the coverage, in part because of his boy scout appearance [and the glamor of secretary Fawn Hall], North was portrayed as some kind of patriotic hero. All of this can’t have been lost on Jose Rodriguez and others in the CIA.
So, Jose Rodriguez seems to be following protocol. Don’t make Scooter Libby’s mistake and testify before a Grand Jury where you might perjure yourself. And hold out for immunity like Ollie North had done a decade before. Notice that the CIA uses the same rationale as North: "to protect the lives of individuals involved in … operations." Given the precedents, the question "Why Were CIA Interrogation Tapes Destroyed?" begins to be replaced with "What are we going to do about it this time?" So far, the Prosecutor, John Durham, has not offered Rodriguez immunity…
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