CIA Withheld Interrogation Tapes From The 9/11 Commission?

That’s the claim being made by the media, though it’d be interesting to see what the nature of the actual request made to the CIA was. Simply asking for “information” about the interrogation of terror detainees does not necessarily, to me, necessitate divulging hundreds of hours of video tape of two specific interrogations.

NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) – The Sept. 11 commission asked the CIA in 2003 and 2004 for information on the interrogation of al Qaeda suspects, only to be told the agency provided all that was requested, The New York Times reported on Saturday. . . .
The Sept. 11 commission’s chairmen, Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, said their reading of the review, a copy of which the newspaper obtained, convinced them the CIA made a conscious decision to impede the panel’s inquiry, the Times said.
A memo prepared by Philip Zelikow, the panel’s former executive director, concluded that “further investigation is needed” to determine whether the CIA’s withholding of the interrogation tapes from the commission violated U.S. law, the paper reported.
The CIA said it destroyed the tapes lawfully to protect the agents involved in the interrogations, but the news prompted an outcry from rights activists and Democrats in Congress, as well as investigations by the Bush administration and Congress.

Here’s the facts: The CIA didn’t destroy the tapes until well after the 9/11 commission had been completed, and bi-partisan leadership in Congress was briefed about the impending destruction a full two years before the tapes were actually destroyed. Plus, consider why the CIA destroyed these tapes in the first place. They felt that their reports on the interrogations provided sufficient documentation, and so destroyed the tapes so that a) the identities of the interrogators wouldn’t be revealed and b) the tapes wouldn’t be used for political purposes.
Given the highly politicized nature of the 9/11 commission, point “b” is particularly salient.
If you ask me, the 9/11 commissioners are just piling on using this tape controversy as an excuse to grandstand and renew their importance as 9/11 commissioners. They were vain from the beginning, what with the bound and published copy of their report hitting bookstores, and they’re vain now as they puff themselves up with self righteous indignation over this trumped up non-scandal.