Agencies probe destruction of CIA tapes

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department and the CIA’s Office of Inspector General said Saturday they have launched a joint inquiry into the CIA’s controversial destruction of videotaped interrogations of two al-Qaida suspects. The preliminary inquiry would be a first step in determining if a full investigation and potential criminal charges are warranted.

The probe had been under discussion since shortly after the agency’s director, Gen. Michael Hayden, disclosed Thursday that CIA officials had made the videotapes in 2002 and destroyed them three years later. The Justice Department has asked for an initial meeting with the CIA’s legal staff and the agency’s inspector general, John Helgerson, early this week.

“I welcome this inquiry and the CIA will cooperate fully,” Hayden said Saturday in a statement. “I welcome it as an opportunity to address questions that have arisen over the destruction back in 2005 of videotapes.”

Hayden’s disclosure, made in a letter to employees, has caused an uproar in Congress and among some human rights advocates and defense lawyers. Many of them have called for investigations into the CIA’s destruction of the videotapes, charging that the agency lied about their existence and then destroyed them to cover up evidence of extremely harsh and possibly illegal acts of torture.

One staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to a prohibition on discussing ongoing law enforcement inquiries, said the CIA’s actions could violate at least two federal criminal laws: obstruction of justice and false testimony to Congress, by failing to turn over requested interrogation tapes to the Sept. 11 Commission, which was appointed by Congress.

The CIA has agreed to “preserve any records or other documentation that would facilitate this inquiry,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a letter sent Saturday to the CIA’s acting general counsel, John Rizzo.

At least one member of Congress, and, reportedly, even a senior White House official, claim to have told the CIA to preserve the tapes before they were destroyed.

Democratic leaders demanded Friday that Attorney General Michael Mukasey order a full Justice Department probe into the matter, but it was unclear Saturday what role Mukasey played in the launching of the inquiry.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Saturday that the inquiry “will be an important first test for Attorney General Mukasey.”