January 02, 2008
DOJ To Investigate Destruction Of CIA Tapes
UPDATED.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced today that the Justice Department would open a criminal probe into why the CIA destroyed videotapes of terrorism interrogations, but a top administration critic renewed calls for an outside investigation.
"It is disappointing that the attorney general has stepped outside the Justice Department's own regulations and declined to appoint a more independent special counsel in this matter," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers.
The DOJ probe follows a preliminary investigation conducted internally at the CIA after Director Michael Hayden disclosed that videos of two al-Qaida suspects being harshly interrogated were destroyed. The White House has bristled at reports that it had a role in the tapes' destruction, but officials have generally refused to clarify what they knew and when they knew it.
In a statement announcing the investigation, Mukasey said, "Following a preliminary inquiry into the destruction by CIA personnel of videotapes of detainee interrogations, the Department’s National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation."
The investigation would normally fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia, but following a recusal request, a U.S. attorney based in Connecticut will handle the matter, Mukasey said. U.S. attorneys are political appointees, but questions about just how political those appointments were culminated in the resignation of Mukasey's predecessor, former AG Alberto Gonzales, last year.
Mukasey described John Durham, the first assistant U.S. attorney in the Connecticut office, as "a widely respected and experienced career prosecutor who has supervised a wide range of complex investigations in the past."
News of the destroyed videotapes fueled growing suspicions that the Bush administration has adopted an off-the-record torture policy for terrorism detainees. Before the Christmas break, U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy seemed wary of opening a judicial investigation, in part because of the sensitivity of the situation and in part because the government had already opened a preliminary investigation.
In 2005, Kennedy ordered the administration to "preserve and maintain all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." On Dec. 21, Kennedy said he would hold off on deciding whether officials violated that order.
The White House has said that it cannot disclose the details of its interrogation and detainee treatment policies without compromising national security. President Bush has repeatedly insisted that torture is not U.S. policy, but has also refused to clarify which methods the U.S. considers to be torture.
Its insistence on secrecy has informed the perception that the administration has something to hide, which in turn has fed falling opinion of the U.S. around the world. Some Republicans, most notably John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have broken with the White House on the torture issue, because of their contention that a U.S. policy violating global human rights conventions leaves U.S. servicemen and women vulnerable.
In addition to calling for an independent counsel, Conyers expressed frustration at the limited target of the investigation. "The government needs to scrutinize what other evidence may have been destroyed beyond the two tapes, as well as the underlying allegations of misconduct associated with the interrogations," the Michigan Democrat said.
Congress is still on its holiday recess, and leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee were not immediately available for comment.
Posted at 5:27 PM
Posted to:
Al-Qaida, Bush Administration, CIA, Congress, Michael Hayden, Michael Mukasey, Military, President Bush, Terrorism
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