Mukasey Rebuffs Congress On CIA Tape Info

(CBS/AP)  Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused Friday to give Congress details of the government's investigation into videotapes of detainee interrogations that were destroyed by the CIA. He said doing so could raise questions about whether the inquiry is vulnerable to political pressures.

In letters to leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees that oversee the Justice Department, Mukasey said there is no need right now to appoint a special prosecutor to lead the investigation. The preliminary inquiry currently is being handled by the Justice Department and the CIA's inspector general.

"I am aware of no facts at present to suggest that department attorneys cannot conduct this inquiry in an impartial manner," Mukasey wrote Friday to Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat and Republican, respectively, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "If I become aware of information that leads me to a different conclusion, I will act on it."

Addressing congressional demands for facts in the CIA tapes inquiry, Mukasey noted that the Justice Department generally does not give out information about pending cases.

"This policy is based in part on our interest in avoiding any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence," Mukasey wrote. "Accordingly, I will not at this time provide further information in response to your letter, but appreciate the committee's interests in this matter."

An almost-identical letter was sent Thursday to Democratic leaders of the House Judiciary Committee.

CBS News has learned that, in addition to refusing to grant the Committee's requests for information, the Justice Department today requested that the House Intelligence Committee "step down" its own investigation into the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes, while Justice conducts its own inquiry.

The committee "completely objects" to the request, CBS News learned.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that parallel investigations across government happen all the time, and that it is the committee's oversight responsibility.

Both the Chair and Ranking Member said they are willing to subpoena witnesses if it comes to that.

Responding to Mukasey's letter today, Leahy suggested that Mukasey's refusal amounts to a stonewalling of congressional oversight of the Justice Department.

"I am disappointed that the Department of Justice declined to provide us, either publicly or in a classified setting, with any of the information Senator Specter and I have requested," Leahy said in a statement.

"Oversight fosters accountability," Leahy said. "This committee needs to fully understand whether the government used cruel interrogation techniques and torture, contrary to our basic values."

Leahy said the tapes would be a top topic at his committee's hearing next week to consider the nomination of U.S. District Judge Mark Filip for deputy attorney general, the Justice Department's No. 2 official. It also will come up at oversight hearings of the Justice Department that Leahy said he would schedule for early next year.

The videotapes, made in 2002, showed the CIA's interrogations of two terror suspects. They were made to document how CIA officers used new, harsh questioning techniques approved by the White House to force recalcitrant prisoners to talk. The CIA destroyed the tapes in 2005.

During his confirmation hearings, Mukasey refused to answer Senate Judiciary Committee members' questions about whether he considered waterboarding to be torture, saying he had not yet been briefed on the administration policies on the matter.

[b-easy63]

The constituents of Schumer and Feinstein should kick their azzes until their noses bleed and drum them out of office. Who did not see this coming???

[heartlight3]

So are we to understand that while congress is trying to exercise it''s responsibility of oversight, the Justice Dept. and CIA are telling them we will not co-operate with your investigation because it will interfere with our investigation of ourselves? Amazing.

[starleo146]

Get the militia''''s armed and at ready...there''''s only one way to get our country back!

Wonder what would happen if every state seceded from this fricking Union!

This is the most sickening thing I have ever heard!

Posted by RowdyTexan2 at 09:14 AM : Dec 15, 2007
+ report abuse

We need to start something to be heard I am at a loss as to what can happen next.May I add I will not be surprised at anything.

[starleo146]

Here we go again. If he didn''t know what waterboarding was you knew he was one of the underground. Thanks Diane you doofus and you Chuck Shumer that is exactly what you deserved. Instead of doing what is right you backed your New York buddy WHY!!!!Disgusted with the whole lot of you

[starleo146]

I just do not know what else the Democrats can do to mess themselves up, between Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Shumer, What else can they do. I am not bringing up the funding for the war again this year, Okay 70 billion, we won''t ask for timetables, When is this Congress, and Senate, with another BUMKIN Harry Reid, going to grow a backbone, and spit in the King Bush''s eye. SICK, SICK. They, all of them just do not get it, Republican or democrats. They have forgotten it is the people here who are screaming for change, and they just twiddleee, dum, twiddleeee dee, HUH, WHUT,Okay Mr. President just do not holler at us. We will do whatever you say.

[tylenol6]

If the democrats think that they are going to win the
election, THEY ARE IN FOR A BIG SURPRISE!!!!!!! The american people are disgusted with government and
congress. I switched my party and plan on voting for
RON PAUL. He is the best candidate. I think he would
also expose what the Bush crooks have been up to all
these years. I think it would make us all sick if we
really found out what they have been up to. VOTE RON
PAUL.....

[bareemperor]

American Justice is dead, long live the King!

[cbs_oliver]

We can thank Chuck Schummer and Diane Feinstein for making this possible.

Hillary Clinton might have set Chuck straight, but she didn''t.

We need better Democrats.

[sensible2]

...........SURPRISE!...... no? oh well

kick them all out.
Vote for no incumbents.

[fornicario]

I guess I need to practice my goosestep now, and watch for the Gestapo to come for me. I thought we defeated the Fascists in WWII, not imported the seed for the evil to flourish in our midst. We now have a government who is above the laws it swore to uphold, and the people we elected to put a stop to it are either complicit in this evil, or are too incompetent to do anything about it. What does it take for this to end? Three hundred plus years ago we fought for the right to question our leadership, creating this once great land in the process. Now we need to show that together, as a nation, we can change the course of history again, and allow ourselves to come back from the brink of becoming those who we wage war against, the forces of greed and tyranny. And as a unified country, we can change things, not through force, but through a lack of support for those things which strip from us our rights and liberties. We need to admit that we have gone astray, and find our way back to the path that our Founding Fathers had the foresight to create. We are a great nation that has stumbled. Now we must pick ourselves back up.