How naive to think that the other side hasn't done the same darned thing to our people. What about Col. Buckley U.S.M.C. in the Lebanon. Secrets have been extracted from people in the cruelest of fashions since way before Christ and the so called civilization of nations came about. The CIA must enjoy the same options as the enemy and today the threat of terrorism is greater than ever. Wake up people!
- 1
- 2
The CIA and the Archives
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
SPONSORED BY
The Federal Records Act cited in Wester's letter was passed by Congress in 1950 and generally requires the preservation of all official government records. The law defines records broadly as all material "regardless of physical form or characteristics" that is "made or received" by an agency and which constitutes "evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or activities of the government or because of the informational value of data in them."
Mansfield did not explain why the CIA didn't find the destroyed videotapes to be "records" as defined under the law. But agency officials could be relying on another provision of the records law that permits an agency, during wartime, to destroy records outside the continental United States that are judged to be "prejudicial to the interests of the United States." The CIA has argued that one reason for destroying the tapes was that agency officials feared that if the videotapes were leaked they might compromise the identity of the CIA interrogators.
Susan Cooper, a spokeswoman for the Archives, said the Archives have the authority to make referrals to the Justice Department when it determines that an agency has violated the records act, although it has not done so in recent years. Justice can then impose civil fines on the individuals involved in the unauthorized destruction of records, she said.
© 2007
- 1
- 2
Discuss