But they all seemed so trustworthy

MANIFESTO

From the idiots who brought you the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Panama, Iran-Contra, and other debacles too numerous to recite, we now have this.

The CIA destroyed 92 controversial interrogation videos, Justice Department documents showed Monday, in a new twist in the tape scandal which may fuel more allegations of Bush-era abuses ...

So far the Central Intelligence Agency has only admitted to destroying several tapes -- which are said to show that "war on terror" suspects were tortured or water-boarded -- to protect its employees from any Al-Qaeda reprisals.

According to The New York Times, the tapes show the harsh interrogations of Abu Zubaydah, suspected of being a leading Al-Qaeda member, and Abdel Rahim al-Nashiri, believed to have been involved in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen.

Needless to say, the ACLU (to which a membership renewal is going as I write this), which brought a FOIA suit against the moronic group of spies is aghast:

"This [situation] provides further evidence for holding the CIA in contempt of court," ACLU staff attorney Amrit Singh said in a statement. "The large number of videotapes destroyed confirms that the agency engaged in a systemic attempt to hide evidence of its illegal interrogations and to evade the court's order. Our contempt motion has been pending in court for over a year now -- it is time to hold the CIA accountable for its flagrant disregard for the rule of law."

Of course, this accountability will never happen (at least, not in public) even in an Obama administration, but it's pretty to think so.

I've said for decades that the CIA has outworn its usefulness because of its ineffectiveness. This episode, however, demonstrates not just incompetence, but malfeasance.

And for those people who've urged me to "let go" of the madness of the last eight years, I can only retort that this type of situation is indicative of what confronts us: months and months (if not years and years) of trying to heal the wounds the Bushies inflicted on the US.