No nukes in Iran, no tapes in Langley, no credibility in the White House

By
Max J. Castro                                                                       Read Spanish Version
majcastro@gmail.com

The
tattered credibility of the Bush administration — and of the United
States in the eyes of the world — suffered two massive new blows
last week:

• A
  joint report by U.S. intelligence agencies said Iran had stopped its
  nuclear arms program in 2003, contradicting the report issued by the
  agencies two years ago as well as repeated U.S. accusations against
  Iran.

• The
  CIA revealed it had destroyed the tapes of interrogations of alleged
  terrorists despite advice from the White House counsel and the
  Department of Justice to preserve them.

The
intelligence report on the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program,
called a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), contradicted years of
charges by the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of
State. The revelations also come in the wake of increasingly hostile
U.S. actions toward Iran as well as alarmist statements by Bush and
other American leaders reminiscent of those used in selling the Iraq
war five years ago.

Although
it is unclear exactly when President Bush learned the details of the
NIE, it is evident from changes in his rhetoric that he has known for
some time about the central conclusion of the report, namely that
Iran is not building nuclear weapons.

Previously,
Bush spoke of the need to stop the
Iranian nuclear arms program;
more recently, the President has talked of the necessity to prevent
the Iranians from gaining
the
knowledge for enriching uranium.
Thus, upon learning that four years ago the Iranians had done what
the United States was insisting that they do, the President did not
drop his demands and soften his tone. Instead, he moved the goal
posts and continued ratcheting up the rhetoric, at one point invoking
the prospect of World War III unless Iran can be prevented from
obtaining nuclear knowledge. Amazingly, not even the findings of the
NIE, which put a lie to the thrust of Bush’s claims, managed to
persuade the President to change his tune.

News
about the suspension of the Iranian weapons program undercut the
administration’s drive to harden international sanctions against
Iran and took the wind out of the sails of neoconservatives lobbying
for a U.S. military strike against Iran. Once again, the world
witnessed a case of the Bush administration arguing for aggressive
actions against another state based on disastrously flawed
information.

The
second bombshell of the week, the disclosure of the destruction of
the interrogation tapes, not only seriously undermines the
credibility of the United States abroad but also raises questions
about the rule of law at home.

The
explanation offered by the head of the CIA — that tapes were
destroyed to prevent them from falling in the hands of terrorists who
could then take revenge against interrogators and their families —
is simply not credible. Are we to believe that the CIA, which holds
countless secrets, cannot keep a set of videotapes out of the hands
of terrorists? Are we to believe that instead of destroying the tapes
the agency could not have altered them to blot out the faces of CIA
officers?

What
is much more likely than the official story is that the videotapes
were destroyed to keep them out of the hands of potential
Congressional and Justice Department investigators as well as away
from the eyes of the court of international opinion.

According
to a report in the December 7 edition of the New
York Times,
“the tapes were destroyed in part because officers were concerned
that video showing harsh interrogation methods could expose agency
officials to legal risks, several officials said.”

That
suggests a strong chance that the tapes were destroyed to conceal
evidence of torture and to obstruct justice in order to protect those
who carried it out and, especially, those who approved it. Whoever
was ultimately responsible for the destruction of the tapes also
probably had in mind the example of Richard Nixon, likely to have
survived the Watergate scandal if he had destroyed the audio tapes
incriminating him.

Several
investigations are planned into the destruction of the interrogation
tapes and other related issues, such as why the CIA did not comply
with the 9/11 Commission and federal courts that sought to obtain the
tapes. Given the track record of this administration, however, and
the tacit or enthusiastic support of members of Congress, including
many Democrats, for almost any action rationalized as vital to the
“war on terror,” there is every reason to be skeptical about
these latest inquiries.

Seven
years of scandals and outrages have inured Bush watchers to the
deceptions and transgressions that have taken place during this
administration. Yet the latest revelations have managed to shock even
those accustomed to phantom weapons of mass destruction and twisted
exercises in redefining torture. 

The
good news is that we managed to find out that Iran is not building
nuclear weapons before the attack was launched to preempt their
deployment. The bad news is that the Bush administration continues to
act as if nothing has changed.