Padilla attorney Anthony Natale said in court papers that the March 2, 2004, interrogation at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., could contain information the government conveyed to Padilla that “directly impacts upon his relationship with his attorneys”….

Authorities made 88 video recordings of Padilla being interrogated during the 3 1/2 years he was held at the brig as an “enemy combatant,” officials said. Eighty-seven tapes have been given to the defense, leaving only the last session unaccounted for….

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke was incredulous that anything connected to such a high-profile defendant could be lost.

“Do you understand how it might be difficult for me to understand that a tape related to this particular individual just got mislaid?” Cooke told prosecutors at a hearing last month.

Of course, there was even more… the Padilla defense attorneys said that there were 72 hours of missing or unrecorded interrogations info.

This is Standard Operating Procedure: destroy and hide evidence of covert operations.

We should understand that criminals run this country. They don’t believe in the law… for them! This is true whether it’s about breaking contracts or breaking down human psyches.

Snarky. Not a fair presentation of what I said. Peace.

Ya see what happens when one side snipes in even a small snarky way. It creates the death spiral of back-and-forth attacks which have to escalate.

This is what also *would* happen if Obama led any kind of partisan-like attack on Bushies. Congressional Repubs would become even more obstinate and Obama would never get anything done — and there’s a lot of important stuff he needs to get done and might get done.

If this were being instigated by anti-Obamaites I might call them on using the old “let’s you and him fight while I watch” to destroy America.

That’s a strategy we need to be using more in northern Pakistan than in American politics.

But one thought occurs that I can’t shake off: Why do we believe the tapes were destroyed?

a very “sick” team…each contributing different anti social skills

Now there’s a phrase I didn’t expect to ever see.

It is my opinion that these so called “Torture Tapes” do still exist somewhere. In some form, but not as tapes. These tapes were viewed by many people at various sites. And it is highly unlikely that there where many copies of these various tapes. But more likely they were translated to digital media and transmitted to various sites for viewing via secure transmission lines or sent out as CDROM disks via courier.

As official documents of the administration they should be kept at the presidential library or in the library of Congress, though I remember reading about a special place (built I think in Texas) to house records of all the spying W did. They may be there — for his viewing pleasure.

BTW, the president probably can’t lead the public to call for an inquiry, but if something horribly incriminating came out in public, then the media would be doing that leading. I think that even the larger set of Abu Ghraib pictures would have that kind of effect.

she shouldn’t use torture at black sites as her alternative to a trip to Disneyland. If her trip to tortureland

This brings new meaning to the phrase “electric ladyland”. Eeek!

If Obama really wanted to push Cheney & Co into self destruction, he’d be putting more of this kind of thing out there. Instead, he sadly seems to be sitting on it and hoping that folks will be more worried about AIG bonuses.

Perhaps on blogs there is concern about Constitutional Law being upheld, but the American public are losing retirement savings, homes, jobs and I doubt they can focus on anything because of their emotions.

And Obama, he is rather busy at the moment with current events. You do realize that, don’t you?

I’m not keen on having Europeans sitting in judgment of Americans, though we can’t stop them if they want. What is the alternative except to ask them to hold off, so we can get to it some day?

How will Americans feel about the idea, just the idea, of Europeans judging American ‘leaders’? I agree with Pat Leahy that this requires some kind of public constituency and not just going on in denial. But, certainly the President can’t lead a discussion about this NOW. It just isn’t possible.

That leaves us in a kind of nasty limbo. It’s also unprecedented.

There is no evidence whatsoever that Obama has any intention of doing anything that doesn’t move him forward; he has no desire to litigate the past and apply the rule of law to it. None.

Hamlet act III ?