Office of the Independent Blogger

This won’t end well. Or shouldn’t, at least.

At the time that the Central Intelligence Agency destroyed videotapes of the interrogations of operatives of Al Qaeda, a federal judge was still seeking information from Bush administration lawyers about the interrogation of one of those operatives, Abu Zubaydah, according to court documents made public on Wednesday. The court documents, filed in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, appear to contradict a statement last December by Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, that when the tapes were destroyed in November 2005 they had no relevance to any court proceeding, including Mr. Moussaoui’s criminal trial.

It was already known that the judge in the case, Leonie M. Brinkema, had not been told about the existence or destruction of the videos. But the newly disclosed court documents, which had been classified as secret, showed the judge had still been actively seeking information about Mr. Zubaydah’s interrogation as late as Nov. 29, 2005. The destruction of the tapes is under investigation by the Justice Department and Congress.

But it likely will end well, however, because the Congress and the DOJ are not interested in investigating the obstruction of justice or upholding a fair, free and open American government. Is that cynicism? Sure. Is it too cynical? I don’t think so. While I am an ardent supporter and unabashed admirer of the Central Intelligence Agency, I don’t believe that they should be destroying tapes in such a manner and I think that someone should be disciplined for the action. Someone important, not a patsy. Will that happen? I don’t think so, and it’s a shame.

Mitt Romney’s incredible, guys — he continually comes second, third and not first despite the fact that he has blown an insatiable amount of his own money on the campaign. I’m glad John McCain is pulling away in the Republican race because Romney is a joke and a hack. On the Democratic side, it’s good to watch a tight race and Obama has lingered much longer than I expected. This might go all the way to the Convention, and in those situations the experienced candidate and politicos win but who knows what fate has in store for the candidates.

Life has a way of punching you in the mouth when you walk into a situation unprepared.

Let’s talk about something more, ah, interesting than whether or not life is going to punch Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the teeth: terrorism!

Senior al Qaeda leaders have diverted operatives from Iraq across the globe and are increasing preparations to strike the United States, senior intelligence officials told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday. They said the terrorists had plans to attack the White House as recently as 2006.

“Al Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the U.S. — the identification, training and positioning of operatives for an attack in the homeland,” said Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, which oversees all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Intelligence officials also said they used a controversial interrogation tactic known as “waterboarding,” which some people regard as torture, only on three senior al Qaeda members early in the war on terror and that it has not been used in five years. The officials added that al Qaeda is recruiting Westerners to terror camps in Pakistan.

“While increased security measures at home and abroad have caused al Qaeda to view the West, especially the U.S., as a harder target, we have seen an influx of new Western recruits into the tribal areas since mid-2006, ” Mr. McConnell said. Mr. McConnell revealed that al Qaeda had plans to specifically target the White House. “It [al Qaeda] probably will continue to devote some effort towards honoring bin Laden’s request in 2005 that al Qaeda attempt to strike the United States, affirmed publicly by current al Qaeda leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri in a November 2006 threat against the White House,” he said.

The first thing that struck me was the shameless lie: “we have not waterboarded in five years”. Yeah? I’m not terribly, bitterly opposed to the tactic, on occasion, but damn if it doesn’t bother me to hear a government official say such a thing. A “no comment” or “we’d be compromising national security” is much preferred. As for the other parts — they worry me significantly, to think that al-Qaeda is diverting resources, but then I note that everytime the government publicly cautions they’re wrong (although that can’t go on forever) and I realize that “al-Qaeda is preparing to strike inside the US” and “al-Qaeda is recruiting” and “al-Qaeda is working very, very hard” are things that could be said at any point in the last ten years, so maybe we shouldn’t worry too much.

It is sobering to think about, and I need all the sobering I can get this morning after a night out at the sports lounge with the Clinton campaign, enjoying democracy.

What can I say about the Patriots losing? Bill Belichick is still a hero.

Tomorrow’s a big day in politics! Will have my thoughts at the end of the night. Forgive me for this briefness, but I’ve got to complete Cement tonight, by Gladkov, and some other pressing business to attend to. If you’re longing for more of Gregory Pratt’s writings, go here to read my latest article, printed by The Chicago Flame, entitled Reviving Passion, Nixon.

I’ll have more to say tomorrow; it’s been a long day of travel, party, grub and bitter disappointment. (I would hope it’s) Needless to say, I’m alright and will be, but I’m at a computer that doesn’t facilitate Internet research or blogging, so that will have to do for now.

Bill Clinton says No Child Left Behind was poorly constructed because the Administration didn’t speak with enough teachers before drafting it and he promises that Hillary Clinton would do better. “She has her own experience drafting legislation without talking to anyone about it,” he must reason, “except hers didn’t pass and was abandoned after the Democratic Party was shelled in 1994″. The point being that Clinton won’t make Bush’s mistakes again nor hers! That kind of learning from experience? That’s what will make education work again in America! (I am only giving them a hard time for its own sake; just this one, I will indulge that desire.)

Bill Richardson and Christopher Dodd won’t endorse anyone before Super Tuesday. Why is this important? It isn’t, although I’m sure both campaigns are upset that they won’t be receiving all thirteen of their supporters. (Actually, both candidates simply want to avoid latching onto a loser because they’re looking for jobs with the new Administration but that is beside the point: they have almost zero support to give.)

If you are in the mood to see what the American government and the Iraqi public are up against in Iraq, go here. Terrorists are using women with down’s syndrome as suicide bombers, detonating them by mobile phone. That’s the worst thing I’ve read in a long time, and it makes me prouder of George W. Bush for suggesting that we will remain in Iraq until the job (of democratization and relative, progressively-less-relative stablization) are complete.

Try reading this and not feeling disgust in your stomach. It’s also proof for those who wonder what kind of relationship the Clintons have that they are nowhere near being on the same page at all and their relationship has become a highly political one. Not that there isn’t love there, but Clinton biographers have noted over the years a lack of connection and some say it’s heightened over the years since he left the White House.

Too easy: Karl Rove to join FOX News? I thought they were on his payroll! And Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo! for 44.6 billion dollars even after the company has fallen into a slump? Selling out won’t be difficult to do for Yahoo! this time around, I imagine. (Not that I will be using them; Google and Gmail are still infinitely better.)

If you haven’t heard, right-wing pundits are furious (at the thought of a McCain candidacy) and Ann Coulter has pledged to campaign for Hillary Clinton if she faces McCain (but she still doesn’t believe in women’s suffrage). I don’t understand the right-wing sleaze machine’s hatred of McCain. I don’t like him because he’s far more Conservative than Liberals and Conservatives give him credit for and I find him to be a phony, but he certainly isn’t Rudy Giuliani on a “Liberal” scale and he isn’t all that Liberal, anyway you look at the big picture. Republicans are just afraid of anyone, anyone, who claims to be a straight talker (whether they’re genuine or not).