After weeks of Democratic hollering, Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced Wednesday that the Justice Department is opening a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA videotapes of the interrogations of terrorist suspects. Federal prosecutor John Durham is to conduct the investigation, which promises to surface prominently as the presidential election campaign progresses.
CIA director General Michael Hayden touched off a maelstrom last month by acknowledging that some videotapes of Al Qaida suspect interrogations, made in 2002, had been destroyed three years later. The purpose, according to Hayden, was to protect the identities of the prosecutors. As someone sent in by President Bush to fix the much-maligned agency, Hayden must have espoused candor as a cleanser.
Critics of that move – mostly political partisans – accuse the CIA of destroying evidence of torture – a line certain to resonate in the national debate. Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton, who jointly headed the commission that investigated the September 11, 2001 attacks, jumped onto the debate.
In an op-ed published in the New York Times this week, they said CIA officials unlawfully obstructed their investigation by failing to notify them that the videotapes existed. No complaints there. But something still doesn’t sound right. Isn’t it the CIA’s job to cover its tracks as much as it is to mount covert operations?
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