Tag: Obstruction of Justice

The Russian Connection: When WH Counsel Knew Flynn Lied

According to an article in Foreign Policy, confidential documents that were handed over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed that, in the first days of the Trump administration, White House Counsel Donald McGahn researched federal law dealing both with lying to federal investigators and with violations of the Logan Act, a centuries-old federal law that …

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The Russian Connection: Desperation

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Russian meddling in the 2016 election appears to be concentrating when Donald Trump knew the National Security advisor Michael Flynn had lied. Focus on Flynn, Trump timeline suggests obstruction is on Mueller’s mind Special counsel Robert Mueller is trying to piece together what happened inside the White House …

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The Russian Connection: Why All The Lies?

With former National Security Advisor General (ret.) Michael G. Flynn’s guilty plea for lying to the FBI, we have still not seen evidence of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 election. So why all the lies that have given fuel to allegation? Special Counsel Robert Mueller has tons of …

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The Russian Connection: The Case for Obstruction of Justice

The case for obstruction of justice against Donald Trump is building. First there was the firing of FBI Director James Comey and Trump’s TV interview and tweets that indicated that his motive for Comey’s dismissal was the investigation of the Russian involvement in the 2016 election which now appears to have gone even farther than …

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The Russian Connection: More Revelations

Yesterday the Washington Post reported that Trump appealed to two intelligence chiefs for help to push back the FBI investigation into his campaign after then Director James Comey revealed its existence in March. Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the …

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The Russian Connection: It’s Only Wednesday

This administration has been non stop self-inflicted crisis. On Monday we learned the Trump met with the now fired FBI Director James Comey on February 14 to ask him to drop the investigation into Lt. General Michael Flynn’s, his just fired national security adviser, Russian Connection. After the usual denials by the White House, it …

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The Conspiracy To Deceive Is Not Going Well

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive. Sir Walter Scott And what a tangled web Donald Trump has woven for himself. This all started with a lie in a tweet to deflect the news media, the FBI and two congressional committee from investigating the possible collusion of his campaign with …

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The Russian Connection: Surveillance and Incidental Collection

Yesterday, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), went to the White House to disclose classified information that he was given by an unknown source with regards to the investigation into the Trump administration’s Russian connection. To say this was highly irregular is an understatement. Nunes has absolutely no experience in …

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CIA to Release Videotape Docs to Senate Committee (Updated)

In a turnabout, the CIA said “it would begin handing over documents to Congress about the destruction of videotapings showing the harsh interrogation of two terror suspects after the House Intelligence Committee threatened to subpoena two agency officials,” according to a breaking story from Associated Press.

This comes after the bombshell revelations earlier yesterday that at least four administration officials, including David Addington, Harriet Myers and Alberto Gonzales, were involved in discussions about what to do with these incriminating videotapes. dday had an excellent diary on this earlier.

The turnabout also comes after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) said he was going to subpoena former and current CIA officials and attorneys if they didn’t agree to appear before the committee. The agreement by CIA apparently also includes agreement on the testimony of CIA general counsel John Rizzo, the official who is said to have ordered the destruction of the tapes, though CIA won’t commit him to a specific date.  

USAToday on the Destroyed Tapes

I’ll start by saying I find USAToday an example of everything bad and wrong about today’s print media.  Well maybe not everything, WaPo is worse because they’re also dishonest.  But USAToday is deliberately designed (and has been since it’s inception) to be the McEyewitness News of Newspapers, a pile of print for you to step in on the way out of your room at the Marriott in the morning.  Reading it takes no longer than a cup of coffee and a danish.

But lots of people do because it’s free and a step up from a local ‘shopper’ newsprint magazine, so I occasionally check their opinion section to get the pulse of what’s supposed to be mainstream.

Today one of their opinions was No torture, no need to destroy videotapes.  Whoever wrote this has no doubt that the tapes would make us look bad-

Had the tapes ever gotten out, they might have made the Abu Ghraib prison photos look tame. Imagine the propaganda value Osama bin Laden could reap from video of Arabs struggling in pain as Americans subjected them to waterboarding or other torture. The fact that the prisoner might have been a murderous thug would be lost in the revulsion and condemnation of the United States for barbarism.

Then again the prisoner might not have been a murderous thug, just a low level wacko, but I digress.

Like all things USAToday it’s a very quick read and I encourage you to do so.  The author mostly gets it right.  “The original sin was the torture itself, not the tapes or their destruction.  Spy agencies don’t get to write their own laws.”

What I think the author misses though is how much seeing these tapes would inflame not only Arabs, but Americans.

Who among us, a society that buys its meat shrink wrapped in plastic at best, in microwavable breaded nuggets more often, really wants to see sausage made?

I’ll tell you who.  The 30%.  Dogfighting, executions, we’re Romans and we deserve the best circuses to display the power and wealth of our empire!

It puts me in mind of later empires too, where dictators and their sycophants giggle and eat popcorn while flickering images of state traitors dance at the end of piano wire nooses like obscene puppets.

Do you suppose W watched these tapes?  How many times?  Special bonus question- how many times for Saddam’s execution?

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