By Larry Johnson
closeAuthor: Larry Johnson
Name: Larry Johnson
Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net
Site: http://NoQuarterUSA.net
About: Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm with expertise combating terrorism and investigating money laundering. Mr. Johnson works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises, briefs on terrorist trends, and conducts undercover investigations on counterfeiting, smuggling and money laundering.
Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management.
Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC's Nightline, NBC's Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world, including the Center for Research and Strategic Studies at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. He represented the U.S. Government at the July 1996 OSCE Terrorism Conference in Vienna, Austria.
From 1989 until October 1993, Larry Johnson served as a Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He managed crisis response operations for terrorist incidents throughout the world and he helped organize and direct the US Government’s debriefing of US citizens held in Kuwait and Iraq, which provided vital intelligence on Iraqi operations following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr. Johnson also participated in the investigation of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103. Under Mr. Johnson’s leadership the U.S. airlines and pilots agreed to match the US Government’s two million-dollar reward.
From 1985 through September 1989 Mr. Johnson worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. During his distinguished career, he received training in paramilitary operations, worked in the Directorate of Operations, served in the CIA’s Operation’s Center, and established himself as a prolific analyst in the Directorate of Intelligence. In his final year with the CIA he received two Exceptional Performance Awards.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He taught at The American University’s School of International Service (1979-1983) while working on a Ph.D. in political science. He has a M.S. degree in Community Development from the University of Missouri (1978), where he also received his B.S. degree in Sociology, graduating Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1976.See Authors Posts (738) on December 19, 2007 at 10:33 AM in Current Affairs
Terrific story in today’s NY Times from Messrs. Shane and Mazzetti detailing the fact that at least four White House lawyers were privy to discussions about the fate of the Torture Tapes. As I noted in earlier posts, CIA ops chief, Jose Rodriguez, received clear guidance that he had permission to destroy the tapes.
Curiously, sources for Shane and Mazzetti insist the tapes stayed overseas and never reached CONUS. Really? Then on what basis did the lawyers advising Rodriguez believe the tapes needed to be destroyed. If nobody on this side of the ocean saw them then why the concern? Just asking.
And that question leads to the idea that there could be or could have been more than one copy of the tapes. Cheney’s office safe must be bursting at the seams.
Fire in the
ReichstagEEOB, Cheney’s place.Don’t laugh…
NPR - Fire at Old Executive Office Building
I joke, but it ain’t funny. Of course, Vader, like any good Mafia don, was elsewhere, with witnesses.
So what burned, the WH visitor logs due in court this Friday or the rest of the sadistic perverts’ torture porn collection?
Heard this story on the news this morning, and they assured us Cheney was not in the office when the fire occurred. Now, that’s a damned shame!
LOL! And the White House has issued an outraged denial and demanded a retraction of the story, so it CAN’T POSSIBLY be true.
Can it?
Just because the physical tapes never made it to CONUS doesn’t mean they weren’t viewed by people in CONUS. After all, it is the information age. As usual, careful consideration of what was said and the strictest interpretation of what they mean is important.
An interesting question for the lawyers out there. Are copies of tapes considered to be the same as the original?
Isn’t a question of “chain of custody” ?
IANAL, but you may be missing one aspect: were the tapes on physical tape media? or were they digitized?
If on physical media, then there are ways to encode it so that no one can copy — just ask Hollywood. Nevertheless, video > digital transfers happen all the time; you can probably get it at your local camera shop.
If on digital media, there are still ways to protect media (passwords, plus stuff beyond my knowledge level). But digital media is pretty much a “duplicate file” command. So when one is specific in asking about any sort of taping, it might be wise to probe more for precise language regarding the types of storage media used for the information. It may have been reproduced on multiple media, which would give more ‘ass covering room’ for Bu$hCo, but also more risk of dupes out there in the world.
Larry, couldn’t resist clicking over to see whether you had any comments or insights on this latest.
FOTFLMAO.
Why is it being leaked by “Senior administration officials”? I know this is a silly question, but have we not seen this pattern before?
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/12/19/white_house_denies_wider_role_in_cia_tapes/8563/
Where are the various tape libraries located? People that torture like to watch torture, do they not?
The initial tactic employed by the White House—and, I say tactic because they appear incapable of formulating a working strategy for anything—is that the tapes were created, stored and destroyed overseas, so there is no controlling US authority.
Correct me if I am wrong here, but as a soldier—to the extent not amplified or otherwise modified by an existing Status of Forces Agreement, the Uniform Code of Military Justice followed me wherever I went. There was no requirement that any offense I might be accused of occurred on ‘US soil’ for there to be jurisdiction established. I would imagine that applicable US statutes and existing Presidential findings, administrative rules and similar guidance would apply to agents no matter where they operated.
Is my assumption incorrect, or are all those high-powered attorneys like David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Meyers and others failing a fundamental first year law question?
Er, Harriet Miers. Sorry.
oldtree-are you referring to Cheney’s desk drawer?
Was the CIA so overfunded that it could fly rendition planes at a minutes’ notice but had to rely on ‘tapes’ for its interrogations? I would have thought Cheney would have had a web cam.
Does Nancy Pelosi own a dress? Or a skirt? When is she going to get rid of those polyester pant-suits? And what’s with all this “Red”? Can’t she tone it down a little and dress like a lady? She’s the speaker of the house, for crying out loud, but she looks like a low-class Turkish woman.
Centrocita, would you mind toning down the racism just a bit? You never know whom you might be offending.
I would figure the library to be a server in the white house due to secure traffic requirements, if they did copy a digital record. (If is not really what I would guess on a matter so important to the power retaining it’s power)
It isn’t just email that these judges should be asking for of the records. Older judges may not know the terms to use for such refined searches for evidence either. We have seen that used to obstruct justice a few million times now with the missing email.
Slightly off topic……
For all of those of you reading this who still think we live in a democracy please read the following. Or just continue to stick your heads in the sand and pretend that everything is going to be just peachy when the Republicans are still in power this time next year and we are still in Iraq and the economy is even worse then it is today and as the old Jimmy Dean song says…”Another day older and deeper in debt.”
I for one am planning a fast exit to anywhere else that is not a police state.
Police State America
A Look Back And Ahead
By Stephen Lendman
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18918.htm
Sure hope the writers strike is over soon. I’d like a bit of leavening with the authoritarianism, please.
Is Canada too close? They have an intelligent conservative in power who might be one of the last of W’s buddies left. A land exit may seem quick, but American law enforcement has gotten extraordinary cooperation from our neighbors lately. (The limit for American tourists is 6 months minus a day.)
I remember spending 1974 on an extended European trip. Watched President Ford’s first speech in a pub in Ireland.
Even if the neocons don’t go without a fight, I have almost no hope for the future of this country. Everyone can recall how poisonous politics became in the ninties. How vicious will the true believers get when they lose power? There is much more antagonism ahead, and possibly armed conflict.
Military Order number 1 ;
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-27.html
836 of title 10, United States Code;
President may prescribe rules
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=10&sec=836
Executive Order 12958 of April 17,1995.
(h) “Unauthorized disclosure” means a communication or physical transfer of classified information to an unauthorized recipient.
Sec. 1.8. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations.
(a) In no case shall information be classified in order to:
(1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;
(2) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency;
(3) restrain competition; or
(4) prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of national security.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/clinton/eo12958.html
Bill Keyes: The artical you posted says it all.
I read recently that The JAG core was being politically harrassed by the White House.
What the historical traditions are in the JAG and the relationship with the executive branch?
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/12/15/white_house_wants_more_control_over_jags/9723/
What I found interesting was the reference to Reagan administration’s “national security emergency” EO 12656 of 1988. Back then in Northern California , C.A.M.P was in the process of running “blackwater” OPS in testing martial law. I would wager that one could connect the dots from to now.
PS. I think it goes to the heart of the matter when you ” Destroy something no one has seen”
Bushie lie #3,495,576,013. Bushie-gate #1,589. Bushie crime #94,238 approx.
Why destroy the tapes if Bush doesn’t torture and the administration has done nothing illegal…uh…such as destroying the tapes? Just asking.