92 Videotapes and the Truth
There is a news story out today that the CIA confirmed destroying 92 videotapes of interrogations of terrorist-suspects since 9/11/2001.
According to the AP, the tapes
were destroyed, in part, to protect the identities of the government questioners at a time the Justice Department was debating whether the tactics used during the interrogations—which are believed to have included waterboarding—were illegal.
There is a part of me that is glad the tapes were destroyed. It’s the same part of me that wishes the images of Abu Ghraib had never seen the light of day and dealt a strategic blow to America’s moral authority in the world.
But there’s another part of me that is outraged at the destruction of the tapes. It’s the part of me that hates that we surrendered our values in the pursuit of security. It’s the part of me that admires those courageous Americans at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay who spoke up when they saw something that–to them–just wasn’t right. It’s the part of me that finds resonance in Bruce Springsteen’s lyric:
You know that flag flying over the courthouse/Means certain things are set in stone/Who we are/What we’ll do/And what we won’t.
And so the story of these 92 destroyed video tapes gives additional urgency to the hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, March 4, 2009, to examine the potential for a nonpartisan commission of inquiry into the Bush administration’s counter-terrorism programs.
What did our government do in our name in the years after 9/11? What actions did we take that so offended some consciences that they warranted lies, and the destruction of evidence? Who made those determinations and why? The historian in me says that history will slowly reveal its secrets, but the citizen in me says that we all need to know now, if for no other reason than to just get it all out there so we can work through it and emerge stronger on the other side.
The “Truth Commission,” as it is often referred to, is seen by some as a partisan witch-hunt. But it doesn’t have to be. If conducted in a spirit of honest and even-handed inquiry, it can be an opportunity to simply expose the truth–as uncomfortable as it may be–so that in the end, America can reaffirm its commitment to openness, transparency, truth, justice and the rule of law.
Some might smirk at such an unapologetic embrace of American ideals. But over more than two centuries, those ideals have distinguished America to the world; they have made us different from the other great powers of history; and they have kept us free.
