Congress, DOJ Clash re CIA Videotapes Probe
Congress and the Department of Justice apparently may be headed for a showdown over the issue of whose investigation takes precedence concerning videotapes of al-Qaida interrogations destroyed by the CIA.
Members of the House Intelligence Committee reacted angrily yesterday to a Justice Department request that the committee postpone their investigation because of the “significant risks” it would create for the DOJ probe, reports the New York Times.
Meanwhile, the DOJ has refused to provide any information to other congressional committees looking into the issue, in order to avoid, as Attorney General Michael Mukasey puts it, “any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence,” the Times article states.
A “preliminary joint inquiry by the Justice Department and the CIA is aimed at determining how the tapes were destroyed, who authorized their destruction, and whether the action violated the law,” the Times article continues. “The CIA did not provide the tapes to the commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks or to authorities that have sought to prosecute terrorism suspects in the courts.”
Additionally, the House Intelligence Committee probe is “also trying to determine whether anyone in the executive branch had sought to have the tapes destroyed to eliminate possible evidence that CIA officers had used outlawed interrogation techniques,” the Times writes.
As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, the CIA destroyed in 2005 at least two videotapes of al-Qaida suspects in the agency’s custody being harshly interrogated in 2002. News of the existence, and destruction, of the tapes provoked anger among dongressional Democrats, and suggestions from terrorism suspects’ counsel that the destruction of the videotapes may have violated a court order. Although CIA lawyers apparently authorized the destruction of the tapes, details were sketchy.
Associated Press: “AG Denies Details in CIA Tapes Inquiry”
Los Angeles Times: “Justice Dept. moves to thwart Congress’s CIA inquiries”
Reuters: “Mukasey rejects congressional request on CIA probe.”
Washington Post: “Congress’s Probe of CIA Tapes Resisted”
