December 15, 2007

Government officials are up to their ears in illegal activities...The Congress begins investigating but is hampered at every turn by a foot-dragging White House...Soon, evidence surfaces that the actions were recorded on tape, the existence of which (or destruction of which) could seriously implicate those involved.

Sound familiar? In the current scenario the government officials worked for the C.I.A., following a Bush administration-sanctioned torture policy. The dirty deeds: the torture of two al-Qaeda henchman by U.S. intelligence operatives. The tape: videos of that torture, which were subsequently destroyed.

Of course, we’ve seen this same snuff film somewhere before, haven’t we? From the Abu Ghraib scandal (in which digital photos chronicled American soldiers’ abuse of Iraqi detainees) to the Iran-contra scandal (in which early-generation e-mails showed how rogue operatives channeled profits from illegal arms sales to Iran into the coffers of the Nicaraguan contas) to the Watergate scandal (in which the president himself audiotaped all manner of malfeasance) it has been, as they say, déjà vu all over again.

The difference, though, between Le Scandals Watergate and Waterboard: In Nixon’s case, when White House and Justice Department lawyers encouraged the president to save the tapes in order to avoid obstruction of justice charges, he did (although he may very well have encouraged his secretary, Rose Mary Woods, to deliberately erase 18-and-a-half damning minutes). In the latest mess, even though White House and Justice Department lawyers cautioned the Agency to save its tapes, the C.I.A., per usual, did what it pleased – and deep-sixed them.

Now, of course, the president and the Justice Department, the same dynamic duo that brought us the post-9/11 torture policy in the first place, are coming up with tortured logic to justify non-compliance with Congressional investigators and implying that the tapes’ destruction is moot anyway because they never had to be turned over in the first place.

What they fail to realize, however, is a lesson sorely learned in the digital age: Whenever data is destroyed, another copy mysteriously surfaces.

My guess is that we haven’t seen the end of the torture tapes. Somewhere, in some safety deposit box or closet or attic, or deep in the recesses of a rogue hard drive, someone – an underling, a supervisor, or an agent (whether proud of his actions, enraged by the actions of a colleague, or hoping to cover his ass) - made a dupe that he’s been squirreling away for three or four years, a copy of which will inevitably find its way into Congressional hands (or wind its way up onto YouTube), making dupes of everyone involved.

Patience, patience. In this age when data is forever-stored and passed along, like traces of DNA in a genome, it wouldn't surprise me if somehow someone somewhere will unload that damning cache.