Senate Dems seek probe into destroyed CIA tapes

The Senate Intelligence Committee might launch an investigation this year into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes documenting harsh interrogation techniques by its officers, Democrats said Friday.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the panel, said he is “inclined to” launch an investigation this year into videos destroyed in November 2005. The tapes were created to document possible confessions of two detainees and monitor the officers’ interrogation methods.

{mosads}“They destroyed it without letting us know, without asking our permission, without consulting, without informing us in any way,” Rockefeller said. “They just did what the CIA likes to do.”

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a letter Friday to newly installed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to launch a Justice Department probe into the matter.

“This is the first real test of Attorney General Michael Mukasey,” he said.

Rockefeller also disputed the Bush administration’s notion that Congress had been briefed about the existence of the tapes, saying the administration held classified briefings with a handful of members that glossed over key details.

“I’m really sick of this — OK, I’m angry about it,” Rockefeller said. “It’s a manipulation of the Congress — the use of two people of the Senate, two people out of the House, because nobody else can be told, including our committee. We can’t even talk to anybody, and they say, ‘Oh, they were briefed.’ ”

The tapes are suspected of showing officers employing the controversial simulated drowning tactic known as waterboarding, which has been a source of intense debate on Capitol Hill in recent weeks. This week, House and Senate conferees added language to the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill that would apply the Army Field Manuel, which prohibits torture, to the entire U.S. intelligence community.

Republicans are angry about the addition of the language, and President Bush has promised to veto the measure over the provision.

“Because of this last-minute amendment, this bill would tie the hands of our terror fighters,” said Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

But Democrats say that the revelation of the CIA tapes will buoy their efforts and could help them attract enough support to push the measure through Congress.

“I think as people read the newspapers about these tapes, they will come to believe that this is the way to handle it,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), an Intelligence Committee member. “This is a real point of principle. I don’t think we should be deterred by the fact that the president may try to veto it.”

CIA Director Michael Hayden said the tapes were destroyed to protect the identity of the officers in them, but Democrats are skeptical. At the time, former Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.), a White House ally, headed the agency.

“Obviously there is a fear among some that some of that information contained is going to be troubling, if not incriminating,” said Durbin.