i mean, holy christ.

so why would obama want the move on with that kind of goods on these creeps? would it not make more sense on several dimensions for him to see this as an opportunity to really spike these thugs once and for all, neocons and all the oil war machine maggots with them? and make him the hero rescuing our nation for all time? i’m missing where he has reason to sign up for the craven crew. unless, of course, it’s simply for him and his family to survive.

bmaz, alinaustx raises some interesting points that may not win him the bet, but still provide an interesting angle, at least on the pictures that were held back by obama. could the inclusion in that batch of a known murder victim be perhaps the best reason so far for keeping them under wraps?

Durham may be dual purposing his use of the torture tape GJ

As this goes forward, it is really important to make sure that the term ‘torture tape’ is NOT limited to the notion ‘analog’. PJBurke makes a very good point, and I’m convinced that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Hadley, Cambone, Addington, Alice Fisher, et al would have no problem whatsoever looking God straight in the eye and saying that they ‘didn’t tape’…

In RovianSpeak, that would mean, “We didn’t make ANALOG tapes, and since you didn’t specify what type of tape, we’ll tell you honestly that we didn’t ‘tape’, because we didn’t. Make ‘analog’ videos.”

Because, you know, in Bu$h$peak and Rovarian, that means that they didn’t lie.

They’re counting on not being asked about the specific type of tape, and as long as they can weasel, they will.

After all, it was GWBush who told the press corps in Sept 2003 that any WH staff found leaking about Plame would be fired, and that DC was ‘full of leaks’. GWBush smirked when he said it. So he’s counting on the prosecutor(s) being technically inept, in order for his truthiness version to keep his ass out of prison.

So when ‘the left’ or whatever the odd collection of The Great Pissed Off calls itself talks about ‘tapes’, it’s important to expand the concept. To help other people — like, people who watch YouTubes — grasp that ‘tape’ is no longer a narrow term limited to VHS video. It means digital. And that’s probably where this will lead.

There are reasons not directly related to 9/11 that would prompt Holder or any sane, clear thinking individual, to investigate what happened under Bu$hCheney, Inc.

They may have more to do with controlling resources or other as-yet-muddy reasons than they have to 9/11.

So what bothers me is this: should we be accepting — as fact — that the torture recordings were made on actual old-skool tape? Is there an actual direct statement, e.g. “we recorded on tape” on the record from anyone who should be considered unimpeachable as to such statements of fact? Or is that “tapes” idea serving as a very-convenient-for-Cheney (but not necessarily true) assumption?

The stakes are pretty obvious: digitally-recorded, digitally-transmitted torture-porn could very well still be “living” on a server, a CD or DVD, or even embedded within an e-mail somewhere. Maybe only within SIPRNET, but it could very well still be somewhere.

PJBurke, this topic first surfaced here about 1 1/2 years ago, which is no slam at you at all — b/c this is a great, informative comment.

I’m among those who wholeheartedly agree with your premise that Cheney (and GWBush) counted on people assuming that the ‘tapes’ were analog. I’m also among those who agree that the stakes are high, that there are very likely copies of those (digital) tapes floating around.

In my case, I started out suspecting that other nations had found a way to hack, buy, or obtain copies; more recently, I’ve suspected oil companies among those out to get ‘protection + blackmail mojo’ by obtaining tapes.

And just to underscore you point, consider that GWBush could — technically — have been watching in ‘real-time’, if you really want your spine to shudder. Ditto Cheney. Toss in conference technologies that were maturing in the late 1990s and early 2000’s, and it’s uber-creepy.

So yeah, plenty of reason for a whole lot of people to claim that we ‘need to move on’ and ‘not keep re-hashing the past’. Among them, a whole lot of GOP Senators (and a couple Dems) who weren’t keeping an eye on what BushCheney_Blackwater were up to.

Sinister.

The “preliminary review” process is more an internal DOJ practice device. PR’s don’t exist in law. They are just internal cost control devices so you don’t have to do a ton of paperwork to “open” and “close” an investiatgion. They are commonly used where the DOJ or a USA office wants to establish a matter is going nowhere with a couple google seraches and phone call and maybe a few interviews. They do NOT contemplate use of a GJ. ”It is a very cursory thing”.

And, another quote direct from my friend’s lips, “that’s why I say the IG’s report is much more than a PR”; and why this may not bode well for much coming out of this.

Teh whole PR thing makes no sense.

In many cases involving this mess and it’s not just in the Federal area, it’s scattered throughout every function in our Nation in that people in position of power are not doing what they should be doing. We seem preoccupied with trying to make something out of thin air, hoping to side step almost completely that which should be our focus. This is almost like a form of “Mind Control”.

I want to comment that while in that family I keep talking about, they often laughed at the stories learned of those involved who were playing the games mentioned in your reply. Frankly, this behvior can also be found in with the gangs who pulled pranks during the election period. The pranks were, by design, using simple schemes hoping to play another level of mind games on their victims. I’ve been a victim of this for more than a decade ever since leaving the family. It is successful and if taken to an extreme can destroy anyone.

In your case, getting back to following the rule of law when it’s those involved in making the rules and who should know about the law has proven not to be simple. There doesn’t appear to be any real muscle way of making things change for the good. It’s as when it surfaces does it get attention and the amount of attention is always in question because there are opposing efforts to stop it from going to a higher level that will end it. Part of it in Illinois that I know about seems to come from how wide spread the corruption is. When one person is being attacked and cries for reform surface, we enter into another round of game playing trying to stop reform. Even the Newspapers are involved with trying to modify the public attitude to accept something less than completel truth. Somehow, it’ll be necessary to establish a complete truth level setup as a goal to enable those who want truth to strive for. Settling for less doesn’t cut it any more.
Marty Didier
Northbrook, IL