Is the White House being "green" or covering up for the CIA?

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the erased CIA tapes. Were they erased to cover up torture techniques such as "waterboarding' or was it done in an attempt to conceal the identities of the interrogators? The debate is not just confined to the States, but goes on around the world. At least nobody is trying to say that they were erased by accident. Afterall, who would fall for that line?

Actually, it seems that the White House would like us to believe that line. A Washington Post article by staff writers Elizabeth Williamson and Dan Eggen, tells us that the White House routinely "recycled" e-mail messages during the first three years of the Bush administration. This, despite two Federal statutes requiring presidential communications (to include e-mails) involving senior White House aides, to be preserved for the nation's historical record.

Perhaps it is just a coincidence that the "recycling" was being done at a time when the CIA tapes, that are now erased, were being recorded. It does however beg the question, was penny-pinching so important to the White House in those early years that they would use the same back-up tape over and over?

Of course the White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, says that he has no reason to believe any e-mails were deliberately destroyed. Well he wouldn't, would he? Afterall, he is the White House spokesman.

Call me crazy, but it sounds a little bit too much like the "dog ate my homework" excuse. At least they didn't try to say that Spot ate the tapes.