By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer
January 15, 2008
WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee
and 18 other House Democrats on Tuesday asked the attorney
general to replace a government prosecutor with an outside
lawyer to investigate the CIA's destruction of interrogation
videotapes.
The request comes a day before the CIA's top lawyer, John
Rizzo, is due to testify to the House Intelligence Committee
about the tapes, which the CIA destroyed in November 2005.
Recorded in 2002, they showed the harsh interrogation of two
al-Qaida suspects.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Jan. 2 appointed a Connecticut
federal prosecutor to oversee the criminal investigation. Judiciary
Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a Tuesday
letter to Mukasey that the Justice Department's ability to
conduct an independent investigation is compromised because
the CIA apparently consulted Justice and White House lawyers
about the tapes and their destruction.
"The department has no business conducting the investigation
and should instead turn to a special counsel," Conyers
wrote. "Nothing less than a special counsel with a full
investigative mandate will meet the tests of independence,
transparency and completeness."
Without a special counsel there will be no final public report
on the investigation, Conyers argued. He said he's also concerned
that the investigation will not look at what other materials
the CIA may have destroyed, or whether interrogators broke
laws against torture.
The order to destroy the tapes was given by Jose Rodriguez,
then the CIA's chief spy as head of the National Clandestine
Service. Rodriguez had been scheduled to testify before the
House committee on Wednesday, but his appearance was delayed
because his attorney insists that Rodriguez be granted immunity
from prosecution.
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