CIA to face probe over tapes
Thursday, 03 Jan 2008 07:49
Congressmen fear the CIA destroyed evidence of interrogations as part of a cover-up
The United States justice department has said a criminal inquiry will be launched against the CIA over its destruction of tapes of interrogations.
It was previously reported that CIA officials had ordered the erasing of videos of agents interviewing suspected terrorists.
Congress demanded an inquiry into the incident over fears that evidence of controversial methods, branded as torture by civil rights groups, had been destroyed.
US attorney general Michael Mukasey, who has defended the country's use of waterboarding - a technique used to simulate drowning - in the past, said a criminal investigation had been ordered into the matter.
The intelligence agency previously stated that the tapes no longer had "intelligence value" and needed to be destroyed to protect the identity of former agents who could be targeted by terrorists in the future.
The covert agency has promised to cooperate fully with the inquiry.
The White House has repeatedly denied that the US tortures detainees but admits to using harsh interrogation techniques to obtain information from suspected terrorists.
Former CIA officials are set to appear before Congress in the probe.