Tapes

In trying to analyze the occurrences of our world, its disputes and its consensuses, I've been struck lately by the frequency of missing physical evidence, and the lack of comment it inspires in the media, including the fabled blogosphere.

Some of the episodes that come to my mind at present are the following:

1. The destruction of the air controller tapes of 9/11.
2. The lack of CCTV tapes from 7/7 released to the public. Do they exist?
   
3. The malfunction of the CCTV camera on the 7/7 bus that blew up.
4. The disappearance of the BBC 9/11 broadcast tapes.
   
5. The disappearance of the DVD of the last interrogation of Jose Padilla before he was shuffled over to the criminal justice system.

My favorite is #1, the FAA official that destroyed the tapes cut them into little pieces and scattered them into trash cans all around the building. Talk about initiative!

It's clear that the longer the list gets, the more likely it is that it's all just a coincidence. A single occurrence might excite suspicion, but who can believe all these were done intentionally? Stuff does get lost, and people do chop up tapes into little pieces because just it seems right to them, it's probably going on all the time but we just don't notice. I've got to try to remember this, it makes everything neater.