CIA under investigation

Criminal probe into destruction of tapes suggests a disturbing level of deceit

Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008 | midnight

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has launched a criminal investigation into the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing the 2002 interrogations of two suspected terrorists -- a probe that very well could look beyond the CIA to determine whether other U.S. government officials also were involved.

Mukasey on Wednesday assigned John Durham, a career federal prosecutor from Connecticut, to head the criminal investigation by the Justice Department. The FBI also is conducting its own inquiry into the incident.

The recordings showed the CIA's harsh interrogation of two al-Qaida operatives, and in 2005 the 9/11 Commission had requested recordings of any interrogations. At that time, CIA officials denied such recordings existed. They destroyed the tapes a few months later, CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged last month. Hayden also said his agency had notified members of congressional intelligence oversight committees of the agency's intention to destroy the tapes.

Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, 9/11 Commission chairman and vice chairman, respectively, wrote in The New York Times on Wednesday that they did “ask repeatedly” for such tapes beginning in 2003 and that “those who knew about those videotapes -- and did not tell us about them -- obstructed our investigation.”

It is obvious there was a carefully orchestrated effort to prevent the 9/11 Commission from learning all it demanded to know. What remains unknown is from what level in the Bush administration the direction to destroy the tapes came.

More than likely, this case will not be resolved until a new administration is in the White House. But no matter how long it takes, the American public deserves to know the whole truth, and those who are responsible for these deceitful actions must be held fully accountable.