Ken Silverstein's Washington Babylon blog at Harper's:

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/12/hbc-90001879

Where is Jose Rodriguez? Apparently in business with the brother of top Democrat on Intel Panel
Ken Silverstein December 8, 2007, 2:31 PM

I tend to agree with my colleague Scott Horton that Jose Rodriguez Jr., the former head of the CIA’s clandestine service, is being made the scapegoat for the destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of two Al Qaeda members. “This looks like he was tossed under a giant bus,” one former intelligence official told me. “How likely is it that he took this decision on his own, especially when he’s not in the videotapes and wouldn’t be effected directly? Not very likely.”

[...] Of course, Rodriguez could certainly help clear things up but so far he hasn’t made a statement or even surfaced. So where is he?

[...] Rodriguez, two sources have told me, is doing business in Texas with the brother of Silvestre Reyes, the Democratic chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where Reyes has served since 2001. From what I understand, Rodriguez and Chairman Reyes are extremely close friends, and the congressman “set up Rodriguez with his brother.”

Reyes has ten brothers and sisters and I’m not certain which brother has been working with Rodriguez. But Silvestre certainly has entrepreneurial family members. One brother, Jesus, has worked as his campaign manager and is a political fundraiser who has raised money from companies and individuals with interests before Reyes’s committee. International Microwave Corp., a contractor which that been backed by the congressman, hired his daughter, Rebecca, and his son, Silvestre Reyes Jr.

Last August 16, shortly before he retired, Rodriguez was honored by Reyes at a border security conference in El Paso. “I consider him an American hero,” Reyes said.

[...] So in addition to Rodriguez’s role in the destruction of the videotapes, here’s another question: what does it say about the strength of congressional oversight of the CIA when the top Democrat on the intelligence panel has this type of relationship with the man who until recently headed clandestine services?

* * *

Update, December 8, 2007, 9:00 PM:
Via Talkingpointsmemo.com:

Reyes has just released a statement saying his committee “will follow the facts wherever they may lead, and we will use every tool at our disposal to conduct a fair and complete review” of the destruction of the CIA videotapes. “In these matters,” Reyes added, “there is often a temptation to find a single scapegoat and not address broader issues. We must resist that temptation.”

Given his friendship with Rodriguez, I can well imagine the impulse, no matter what the facts of this particular case.

- - Ken Silverstein

Shooter 242,

The kind of political capital that can best improve the world is moral authority. Actually, I'll add knowledge to that.

kd6rxl,

Each one of us has more chance of being run over by a car than dying from a terrorist attack. Terrorist attacks are overrated. It's not worth sacrificing moral authority to avoid a terrorist attack.

Terrorists win when we are afraid and when we change our laws in response to them.

Risen's and Lichtblau's book, "State of War", reviewed by Spencer Ackerman, in the March, 2006 issue of Washinton Monthly:

http://washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0603.ackerman.html

Review of State of War

[...] Tenet made a Faustian bargain. Risen observes that in national security debates, the intelligence community, like the bureaucracy as a whole, "does serve one purpose: It tends to weed out really stupid or dangerous ideas, unethical and even immoral ideas, ideas that could get people killed or could even start wars." But with Tenet betting the agency's status in the Bush administration on appeasing Bush, its independence--and therefore its potential to mitigate the self-deceptions to which any administration is vulnerable--was completely compromised. What's more, Tenet's pandering to Bush was actually counterproductive to maintaining the CIA's bureaucratic status: The CIA would quickly learn that in the hands of a radical administration, no amount of appeasement would ever suffice.

The effects manifested quickly. Risen charges that Tenet caved to Bush entirely on the torture of al-Qaeda detainees. After the 2002 capture of Abu Zubaydah, a bin Laden deputy, failed to yield much information due to his drowsiness from medical treatment, Bush allegedly told Tenet, "Who authorized putting him on pain medication?" Not only did Tenet get the message--brutality while questioning an enemy prisoner was no problem--but Tenet also never sought explicit White House approval for permissible interrogation techniques, contributing to what Risen speculates is an effort by senior officials "to insulate Bush and give him deniability" on torture. CIA operatives watched apprehensively, remembering the long history of presidents who authorize covert actions only to leave low-level field agents holding the bag when scandals surface.

- - from Spencer Ackerman's review of "State of War"

You presume guilt, then?

"President Bush should make it clear that he will pardon any CIA/military/contractor who was acting in good faith in the Global War on Terror, against any overzealous Monday-morning quarterbacking prosecutions. All patriotic candidates in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes should follow suit. And there will be overwhelming public pressure for this. Anyone who thinks the American public is in favor of coddling the perpetrators of 9/11 is living in the twilight zone."

Cue in the music here. You've always been a loonie nabalzbbfr or anonymoose or whatever handle you appear under (what handle do you use when you frequent Freekersrepublic or Townhall or Little Green Snotballs???), but this one -- whew -- kinda makes me worry. Spread Jaysus on melba toast, where do people like you live? Work? Surely your neighbors must suspect something strange going on in the house next door . . .

The torture tapes disappeared for the same reason Bush dropped out of the International Courts. These monsters, war criminals and their 'patriotic' CIA/militaty/contractors would / should be in the dock in the Hague. The good news -- unlike the trials after WWII -- they don't hang these monsters anymore. They keep them around -- capital punishment being practiced only in non-civilized nations. The bad news -- America will never surrender these beasts.

Anonymoose nee nabalzbbfr continues in his delusion:

"And in other news all the received wisdom on the Iran NIE is turning out to be dross. The American people, by an overwhelming margin in a recent poll, consider Iran to be mortal threat to both Israel and the US. And Defense Secretary Gates has just reiterated that the military option remains very much on the table."

Sigh. Do us all a favor -- don't breed.