It looks to me as though both the House and Senate Intelligence committees are going to open up investigations over the destruction of the torture tapes. The first witness they will want to talk to is former Director of Operations, Jose Rodriguez, now retired, who ordered the destruction of tapes. He will appear before the committees because there is no plausible excuse to prevent him from testifying. He may take the Fifth Amendment, but he will have to appear. If he is granted immunity, or if he decides to talk voluntarily, the whole house of cards could come tumbling down.
It is highly, highly unlikely that Rodriguez would have ordered the destruction of these tapes without any higher authority. If he talks, it’s over for somebody.
And if anyone is considering doing any harm to Mr. Rodriguez, they better think hard…because few people in the world are better equipped to protect themselves and exact revenge than the former head of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations.
The tapes were probably destroyed to protect allies (Saudi Arabia and Pakistan come to mind) more than they were to protect CIA officers. But, who knows? One thing I can’t imagine is Rodriguez agreeing to take the fall for this. If he can work out a quid pro quo with the administration he might agree to perjure himself and rely on a pardon. But that seems doubtful. He can probably get full immunity from Congress if he is willing to talk.
And the Republicans are calling for an investigation. It’s not like they can easily argue that an investigation is a witchhunt.
This really has the potential to be as big, or bigger, than Iran-Contra.
