Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton releasing the Sept. 11 commission's report. A lotta good that did. So is this the part where we say what else is new? The CIA erased the tapes again. What is this, a Watergate holiday season coming up or something?
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 — Angry Democratic lawmakers called for investigations today into the Central Intelligence Agency’s destruction in 2005 of at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts accused the C.I.A. of “a cover-up,” while Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois said it was possible that people at the agency had engaged in obstruction of justice. Both called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate.
“We haven’t seen anything like this since the 18½ -minute gap on the tapes of Richard Nixon,” Mr. Kennedy said in a speech on the Senate floor, as reaction to the disclosure about the videotapes seemed to intensify minute by minute.
Mr. Durbin, the Democratic whip, said he had written Mr. Mukasey to ask for an inquiry into “whether C.I.A. officials who destroyed these videotapes and withheld information about their existence from official proceedings violated the law.”
The speeches by Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Durbin followed an angry statement by Representative Jane Harman of California, head of the Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence and terrorism risk assessment. Ms. Harman, who was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in early 2003, said she cautioned C.I.A. officials then not to destroy any videotapes pertaining to interrogation practices.
“To my knowledge, the Intelligence Committee was never informed that any videotapes had been destroyed,” Ms. Harman said. “Surely I was not.”
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Mr. Mukasey and the C.I.A. director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, today asking whether the Justice Department advised the C.I.A. on the destruction of the videotapes, and whether the department was now contemplating an investigation into possible obstruction of justice.
Late Thursday, Senator John D. Rockefeller 4th, the West Virginia Democrat who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he committee “must review the full history and chronology of the tapes, how they were used, and the reasons for destroying them.” At least one Republican lawmaker has also expressed dismay over the destruction of the tapes.
The C.I.A.’s destruction of the tapes came in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.
President Bush “has no recollection of being made aware of the tapes or their destruction before yesterday,” the chief White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said today.
As to whether there would be investigation by the Justice Department, Ms. Perino said: “I know that the C.I.A. Director is gathering facts and our White House Counsel’s Office is supporting them in that. Whether or not there is going to be an investigation to that scale will have to be determined by others.”
She said President Bush has “complete confidence” in General Hayden.
The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. The tapes were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that video showing harsh interrogation methods could expose agency officials to legal risks, several officials said.
“But that excuse won’t wash,” Senator Kennedy said today. “Does the director believe the C.I.A.’s buildings are not secure? Would it be beyond the agency’s technical expertise to preserve the tapes while hiding the identity of its employees? Does the director believe that the C.I.A.’s employees cannot be trusted not to leak materials that might harm the agency?
“Or does he know that the interrogation techniques are so abhorrent that they could not remain unknown much longer?”
Another prominent Democrat, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, weighed in with similar remarks. Mr. Levin called the C.I.A. explanation “a pathetic excuse.”
“You’d have to burn every document at the C.I.A. that has the identity of an agent on it under that theory,” Mr. Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a Capitol Hill news conference.
Ms. Harman, now head of the Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence and terrorism risk assessment, said, “This matter must be promptly and fully investigated.” She noted that in early 2003 she received “a highly classified briefing” on C.I.A. interrogation practices from the agency’s general counsel, and that she had expressed “serious concerns” in a letter to the lawyer afterward.
“I call for my letter of February 2003, which was never responded to and has been in the C.I.A.’s files ever since, to be declassified,” the Congresswoman said.
In a statement to employees on Thursday, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, said that the decision to destroy the tapes was made “within the C.I.A.” and that they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value.
The destruction of the tapes raises questions about whether agency officials withheld information from Congress, the courts and the Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the program.
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