CIA Director to Testify About Tapes
The director of the CIA will testify before Congress tomorrow and Wednesday about at least two videotapes the agency destroyed of its interrogations of terrorism suspects in their custody. The interrogations are controversial because CIA agents reportedly use harsh techniques that some consider tantamount to torture.
CIA Director Michael Hayden is expected to testify in closed session on Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., according to Reuters. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, reports the Associated Press.
News last week of the destruction of the tapes caused a public furor and elicited statements from a wide-ranging group of officials on both sides of the aisle and at the White House that they had not been informed in advance of the plan.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice announced over the weekend that it has launched a preliminary investigation into the destruction of the tapes, which were made in 2002 and destroyed in 2005, in the midst of various investigations and court requests for the evidence.
