December 9, 2007 (LPAC)--The Department of Justice and the CIA's internal watchdog on Saturday began a joint preliminary inquiry into the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing the torture of top Al Qaeda operatives, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Bush has argued that Abu Zubaydah's case proved the value of harsh interrogation methods, because he yielded valuable intelligence about the 9/11 plot only after those tactics were employed. Current CIA head General Hayden, who will appear before the Senate Intelligence committee on Tuesday, repeated that assertion on Thursday. Hayden revealed the destroyed videotapes after he got word that their existence had been uncovered by the news media. Government officials said the CIA used tactics including noise, stress positions, isolation and water-boarding.
The destruction of the videotapes could amount to tampering with legal evidence and obstruction of justice. What has come to light thus far is that the CIA operative who ordered the destruction of the tapes in Nov. 2005 was Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr., then the chief of the CIA's Directorate of Operations until 2005. According to an official who had spoken recently with Rodriguez on the matter, Rodriguez claims that he had received approval from lawyers inside the clandestine services. On the other hand several officials said that top White House and DOJ attorneys advised the CIA in 2003 not to destroy the videos. Moreover, the CIA's top attorney, John A. Rizzo, had not been notified about the decision to destroy the tapes. The investigation comes after both the Senate and House intelligence committees started their own investigations. Rodriguez announced his retirement from the CIA this summer.
