Tenet Lawyers Up
QuestionGirl January 6th, 2008 - 7:52 pmFrom HuffingtonPost
Attorney general Michael Mukasey’s decision to launch a full’scale FBI probe into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes has sent several alarmed agency employees scrambling to find lawyers. To lead the probe, the A.G. named John Durham, a hard-nosed veteran prosecutor who is assembling a team of deputies and FBI agents. Some CIA veterans fear the move is tantamount to unleashing an independent coun sel on Langley. “A lot of people are worried,” says one former CIA official, who asked not to be identified talking about sensitive matters. “Whenever you have the bureau running around the building, it’s going to turn up some heads. This could turn into a witch hunt.” Justice officials say Durham was assigned to investigate the 2005 decision to destroy the tapes–not the activities recorded on them, including the use of waterboarding on Al Qaeda suspects. But at this point, Durham has no formal mandate on the probe’s scope, giving him the freedom to ex pand it if he chooses. “We’re going to follow this wherever it leads,” says one Justice official, who asked not to be identified discussing an ongoing probe.
One key figure, Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA chief of clandestine services who gave the order to destroy the videotapes, has retained Robert Bennett, a renowned defense lawyer who represented Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Another potential witness, George Tenet, who was CIA director when the tapes were made, will be represented by former FBI general counsel Howard Shapiro. Roy Krieger, a Washington lawyer who has repre sented about 100 CIA employees, says that two agency officers have approached him about representation, though neither has retained him yet.
January 7th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Without investigations that are independent of both parties there will be no justice. It ain’t gonna happen. Mukasey is the firewall for both the Republicans and the complicit Democrats. Why do you think Schumer recommended him to Bush and both he and Feinstein voted for him when with their majority they could have forced Bush to nominate someone more independent than Mukasey? Their fear wasn’t in Bush coming up with someone worse than Mukasey as they claimed because with their majority that argument holds no merit. They controlled the process with their majority. Their fear was the consequences of a truly independent AG because he would be independent of both parties so they selfishly decided for self-preservation over independence. Nothing else can be reasonably or logically concluded from their actions. So now guilty people lawyer up while complicit co-conspirators like Jerusalem Jane Harmon “letter up”. As a result dirty money is being transfered from criminals to lawyers while the possibility of justice being served with this rigged system stays way beyond the realm of possibility with the blessing of both Democrats and Republicans alike. Anybody who claims they are not the same obviously hasn’t been tortured. Sorry Jerusalem Jane but writing a letter to the CIA that states your opposition to their potential actions doesn’t even come close to upholding your oath to the constitution and performing your oversight responsibilities. You are a pathetic excuse for a public servent.