Hill Probes Into Destruction Of CIA Tapes Expand & Multiply

[tekisui]

Congressional investigators are expanding their investigations into the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the CIA's videotaped interrogations, as members of the Senate Intelligence Committee complained about not getting enough answers during a closed briefing yesterday with CIA Director Michael Hayden.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said after the briefing that he plans to call CIA Inspector General John Helgerson and John Rizzo, the agency's top lawyer, to testify by next week "at the latest" on the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the tapes in 2005.

Rockefeller said it is possible he will also call Jose Rodriguez Jr. to testify. Rodriguez has been identified as the official who, as head of the spy agency's national clandestine service, ordered the videotapes destroyed. "This is a beginning," Rockefeller said.

The House Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hear from Hayden during a closed session today.

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting "a complete account of the Justice Department's own knowledge of and involvement with" the CIA's possession and destruction of the videotapes. The Justice Department's national security division and Helgerson announced over the weekend that they will conduct "a preliminary inquiry" into the destruction of the tapes.

Leahy and Specter said their committee will use a hearing next week to consider the nomination of Mark Filip to be deputy attorney general at Justice to find out more about the department's investigation. And adding fuel to the fire, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., yesterday asked U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein for his opinion on whether the destruction of the videotapes violated the Federal Records Act, which requires preservation of official government records.

more at link: http://thegate.nationaljournal.com/2007/12/hill_probes_into_destruction_o.php

[Bitwit1234]

1. Oh and in a month it will all be forgotten.

that's the way these investigations usually run...the peter right on out.

[tekisui]

2. Yep, we'll have a new scandal and a new outrage.

From more evidence of an abuse of power.

They are so criminal that it is expected now, and has become the norm.