Jan 2, 2008 8:12 pm US/Eastern
Mukasey Launches Criminal Probe Into CIA Tapes
Connecticut Prosecutor To Oversee Case
WASHINGTON (CBS News) ―
The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the
destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes and Attorney General
Michael B. Mukasey appointed an outside prosecutor to oversee the case.
The CIA acknowledged last month that it destroyed videos of
officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al
Qaeda suspects. The acknowledgment sparked a congressional inquiry and
a preliminary investigation by Justice.
The decision to elevate the investigation was based on the results so far of that preliminary investigation.
"The Department's National Security Division has recommended, and I
have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal
investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that
investigation," Mukasey said in a statement released Wednesday.
Because of conflicts among the officials who have been conducting
the early probe, Mukasey also announced the recusal of the United
States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, the District in
which the CIA headquarters are located, which would ordinarily conduct
the investigation.
Mukasey's statement said that "in order to avoid any possible
appearance of a conflict with other matters handled by that office," he
would name John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to oversee
the case.
Durham has a reputation as one of the nation's most relentless
prosecutors. He served as an outside prosecutor overseeing an
investigation into the FBI's use of mob informants in Boston and helped
send several Connecticut public officials to prison.
White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters, "We
continue to support the Attorney General's investigation into this
matter."
"The CIA will of course cooperate fully with this investigation as
it has with the others into this matter," agency spokesman Mark
Mansfield said.
The CIA has already agreed to open its files to congressional
investigators, who have begun reviewing documents at the agency's
Virginia headquarters. The House Intelligence Committee has ordered
Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA official who directed the tapes be
destroyed, to appear at a hearing Jan. 16.
Rodriguez's attorney, Robert S. Bennett, had no comment.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
