Senator seeks tougher CIA tapes inquiry

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22171303/

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
updated 6 minutes ago

The controversy over the CIA's destruction of videotapes allegedly showing harsh interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects grew on Sunday with an influential Democrat calling for a special counsel investigation.

A joint investigation by the US justice department and the CIA inspector-general was announced at the weekend. But Joseph Biden, the chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said this would not be sufficiently independent.

Mr Biden questioned the ability of Michael Mukasey, the new attorney-general, to oversee an internal inquiry, given his previous refusal to tell Congress the "waterboarding" - or simulated drowning - interrogation method constituted torture.

"He's the same guy who couldn't decide whether waterboarding was torture and he's going to be doing this investigation," said Mr Biden. "I think it's clearer and crisper and everyone will know what the truth [is] . . . if he appoints a special counsel; steps back from it."

The Senate and House intelligence committees are also investigating the destruction of the tapes, which showed the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah, an alleged 9/11 planner, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in Aden.

Michael Hayden, the CIA's director, has defended the tapes' destruction, saying it protected agents' identities. But several Bush administration officials had reportedly warned the intelligence agency not to destroy them.

Mr Biden said: "It appears there may be an 'obstruction of justice' charge here. . . I think this leads right into the White House. There may be a legal and rational explanation, but I don't see any on the face of it."

The US administration has been criticised around the world over a CIA secret prison programme in which terrorist suspects were interrogated using harsh methods such as waterboarding.

The tape scandal comes as the US intelligence community is under attack from neo-conservatives over the release of an intelligence report saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.