Following up on an earlier item, it’s pretty difficult for the CIA to destroy interrogation tapes, eliminate incriminating evidence, orchestrate a cover-up, and not have Congress take note of the problem.
Congressional Democrats Friday demanded a full Justice Department investigation into whether the CIA obstructed justice by destroying videotapes that documented the harsh 2002 interrogations of two alleged terrorists.
A day after CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden told agency employees the tapes were destroyed in 2005, members of Congress, human rights groups and lawyers for accused terrorists said the tapes may have been key evidence that the U.S. government had illegally authorized torture.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was the first out of the gate this morning, asking Attorney General Michael Mukasey for a probe of “whether CIA officials who destroyed these videotapes and withheld information about their existence from official proceedings violated the law.”
The CIA’s rationalization for the intentional destruction of evidence is that the agency wants to protect those officials conducting the “interrogation techniques.” In a floor speech, Durbin said he’s not buying it, “We know that it is possible and in fact easy to cover the faces” of those who appear on camera, Durbin said. “This is not an issue that can be ignored.”
Others soon joined in. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) said, “We haven’t seen anything like this since the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap in the tapes of President Richard Nixon.” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mass.) called the CIA’s spin “a pathetic excuse.” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) announced an investigation of his own.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, contacted CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden with a series of fairly specific questions.
1. Did the CIA actually destroy the videotapes in 2005 pursuant to the reasons described in the New York Times article and your letter to CIA employees of December 6?
2. Is it the CIA’s general practice and policy to destroy videotapes with that type of evidentiary value? Please provide copies of any agency policies pursuant to which these videotapes were destroyed and any written materials relating to the destruction.
3. Did the CIA notify the Department of Justice of its intention to destroy the tapes and if so, when? Did the CIA receive a legal opinion from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, or any other entity, relating to the destruction of the tapes? Please provide copies of any such written materials.
4. In light of the fact that the September 11 Commission and a federal court requested information regarding these types of materials, why did the CIA decide not to provide information to these two entities concerning the existence or possible and actual destruction of the tapes?
5. When the CIA provided information to Department of Justice lawyers in 2003 and 2005 with respect to the request of the court in the Moussaoui case for evidence taken from interrogations of CIA prisoners, as stated in the Times article, what information concerning the tapes was provided to Department lawyers?
We’ll see if they get answered. I kind of doubt it.
As for the White House, Dana Perino claimed today that the president did not have any “recollection of being made aware of the tapes or their destruction before yesterday,” which if recent trends remain consistent, mean he keeps a DVD copy of the tape in his desk drawer and has held multiple screenings of the video in the White House screening room.
As for a Justice Department probe, Perino wouldn’t say whether the CIA’s move amounted to obstruction of justice, but added that if the AG decides to investigate, “of course the White House would support that.”
Stay tuned.