February 11, 2009 3:45 PM
- Text
Justice, CIA To Hold Inquiry Over Tapes
(CBS/AP)
The Justice Department and the CIA's internal watchdog announced a joint inquiry Saturday into the destruction of videotapes of interrogations of two detainees.
The review will determine whether a full investigation is warranted.
In a statement, CIA Director Mike Hayden says he welcomes the inquiry as "an opportunity to address questions" and pledges the agency's full cooperation.
Hayden told agency employees Thursday that the recordings were destroyed out of fear the tapes would leak and reveal the identities of interrogators.
He said the sessions were videotaped to provide an added layer of legal protection for interrogators using new, harsh methods authorized by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Yet a well informed source told CBS News the videotapes were destroyed to protect CIA officers from criminal prosecution, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
The CIA's acting general counsel, John Rizzo, is preserving all remaining records related to the videotapes and their destruction, according to Kenneth L. Wainstein, assistant attorney general.
Justice Department officials, lawyers from the CIA general counsel's office and the CIA inspector general will meet early this coming week to begin the preliminary inquiry, Wainstein wrote Rizzo on Saturday.
"I understand that your office has already reviewed the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the videotapes, as well as the existence of any pending relevant investigations or other preservation obligations at the time the destruction occurred. As a first step in our inquiry, I ask that you provide us the substance of that review at the meeting," Wainstein wrote.
Congressional Democrats had demanded that the Justice Department investigate. Some accused the CIA of a cover-up and described the CIA's explanation as "a pathetic excuse."
The Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, said Attorney General Michael Mukasey should find out "whether CIA officials who destroyed these videotapes and withheld information about their existence from official proceedings violated the law."
Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy accused the CIA of a cover-up.
"We haven't seen anything like this since the 18½-minute gap in the tapes of President Richard Nixon," he said in a Senate floor speech. The gap, which Nixon's secretary attributed to an accidental erasure, played a major role in the loss of support that resulted in Nixon's resignation.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to Hayden and Mukasey asking whether the Justice Department gave legal advice to the CIA on the destruction of the tapes and whether it was planning an obstruction-of-justice investigation.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Friday that President George W. Bush did not recall being told about the tapes or their destruction. But she could not rule out White House involvement in the decision to destroy the tapes, saying she had asked only the president about it, not others.
Perino refused to say whether the destruction could have been an obstruction of justice or a threat to cases against terror suspects. If the attorney general should decide to investigate, "of course the White House would support that," she said.
In a daily press briefing dedicated almost solely to the topic of the CIA tapes, Perino responded 19 times that she didn't know or couldn't comment.
At least one White House official, then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, knew about the CIA's planned destruction of videotapes in 2005 that documented the interrogation of two al Qaeda operatives, ABC News reported Friday. Three officials told ABC News that Miers urged the CIA not to destroy the tapes. White House officials declined to comment on the report.
The review will determine whether a full investigation is warranted.
In a statement, CIA Director Mike Hayden says he welcomes the inquiry as "an opportunity to address questions" and pledges the agency's full cooperation.
Hayden told agency employees Thursday that the recordings were destroyed out of fear the tapes would leak and reveal the identities of interrogators.
He said the sessions were videotaped to provide an added layer of legal protection for interrogators using new, harsh methods authorized by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Yet a well informed source told CBS News the videotapes were destroyed to protect CIA officers from criminal prosecution, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
The CIA's acting general counsel, John Rizzo, is preserving all remaining records related to the videotapes and their destruction, according to Kenneth L. Wainstein, assistant attorney general.
Justice Department officials, lawyers from the CIA general counsel's office and the CIA inspector general will meet early this coming week to begin the preliminary inquiry, Wainstein wrote Rizzo on Saturday.
"I understand that your office has already reviewed the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the videotapes, as well as the existence of any pending relevant investigations or other preservation obligations at the time the destruction occurred. As a first step in our inquiry, I ask that you provide us the substance of that review at the meeting," Wainstein wrote.
Congressional Democrats had demanded that the Justice Department investigate. Some accused the CIA of a cover-up and described the CIA's explanation as "a pathetic excuse."
The Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, said Attorney General Michael Mukasey should find out "whether CIA officials who destroyed these videotapes and withheld information about their existence from official proceedings violated the law."
Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy accused the CIA of a cover-up.
"We haven't seen anything like this since the 18½-minute gap in the tapes of President Richard Nixon," he said in a Senate floor speech. The gap, which Nixon's secretary attributed to an accidental erasure, played a major role in the loss of support that resulted in Nixon's resignation.
The Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, told reporters the CIA's explanation that the tapes were destroyed to protect the identity of agents is "a pathetic excuse," adding: "You'd have to burn every document at the CIA that has the identity of an agent on it under that theory."
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to Hayden and Mukasey asking whether the Justice Department gave legal advice to the CIA on the destruction of the tapes and whether it was planning an obstruction-of-justice investigation.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Friday that President George W. Bush did not recall being told about the tapes or their destruction. But she could not rule out White House involvement in the decision to destroy the tapes, saying she had asked only the president about it, not others.
Perino refused to say whether the destruction could have been an obstruction of justice or a threat to cases against terror suspects. If the attorney general should decide to investigate, "of course the White House would support that," she said.
In a daily press briefing dedicated almost solely to the topic of the CIA tapes, Perino responded 19 times that she didn't know or couldn't comment.
At least one White House official, then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, knew about the CIA's planned destruction of videotapes in 2005 that documented the interrogation of two al Qaeda operatives, ABC News reported Friday. Three officials told ABC News that Miers urged the CIA not to destroy the tapes. White House officials declined to comment on the report.
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