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Biden Calls For CIA Tape Probe

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By CALVIN WOODWARD, The Associated Press

Published: December 10, 2007

WASHINGTON - A Senate Democratic leader said Sunday that the attorney general should appoint a special counsel to investigate the CIA's destruction of videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists.

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, a presidential candidate and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cited Michael Mukasey's refusal during October's confirmation hearings to describe waterboarding as torture.

Mukasey's Justice Department and the CIA's internal watchdog announced Saturday that they would conduct a joint inquiry into the matter. That review will determine whether a full investigation is warranted.

"He's the same guy who couldn't decide whether or not waterboarding was torture and he's going to be doing this investigation," said Biden, who noted that he voted against making Mukasey the country's top law enforcer.

That view was not shared by fellow Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said Congress can get to the bottom of the matter. "I don't think there's a need for a special counsel, and I don't think there's a need for a special commission," he said. "It is the job of the intelligence committees to do that."

Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the committee, echoed that sentiment.

The Senate and House intelligence committees are investigating the destruction of the tapes. Hagel said one goal is to know whether justice was obstructed and who in the White House might have known about the tapes.

The spy agency's director, Michael Hayden, told CIA employees Thursday that the recordings were destroyed out of fear the tapes would leak and reveal the identities of interrogators. He said the sessions were videotaped to provide an added layer of legal protection for interrogators using new, harsh methods authorized by President Bush to break down the defenses of recalcitrant prisoners.

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