The CIA could begin as soon as Thursday turning over to Congress documents related to the destruction of videotapes showing the harsh interrogation of two terror suspects.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) said Wednesday the agency had agreed to turn over the documents after he prepared subpoenas for former and current CIA officials and attorneys if they did not voluntarily come before the committee to testify about the destruction of the tapes in 2005.
Reyes wants acting CIA general counsel John Rizzo and Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the National Clandestine Service, to testify to the committee on Jan. 16. Rodriguez is the official who directed that the tapes, which document the interrogation of two al-Qaida suspects in 2002, be destroyed.
Rizzo will testify, though the CIA has not committed to a date. Rodriguez has his own lawyer, so arrangements were being made separately.
The documents requested include records related to the 9/11 Commission and to al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, whose attorneys were seeking interrogation videos.
The panel rejected a Bush administration request that it defer to an internal preliminary inquiry conducted by the White House.
Congressional overseers are angry they were not fully informed of the tapes and their destruction, and they want to know what else they have not been told. A federal judge has summoned Justice Department lawyers to his courtroom Friday to determine whether the destruction of the tapes violated a court order to preserve evidence about detainees.
Reyes also wants the agency to make available CIA attorneys Steve Hermes, Robert Eatinger, Elizabeth Vogt and John McPherson to testify before the committee. Former CIA directors Porter Goss and George Tenet, former deputy director of operations James L. Pavitt and former general counsel Scott Muller are also on his list.
Reyes' threat of subpoenas was triggered by a letter the Justice Department and the CIA inspector general sent to his committee last week. It asked the committee to delay its investigation to avoid interfering with a preliminary inquiry by those two agencies.
Reyes and the committee's top Republican, Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, had asked for immediate delivery of all documents, cables and records regarding the taping of detainee interrogations, as well as for testimony from Rizzo and Rodriguez at a planned Tuesday hearing. The officials did not come and the documents were not provided.
Reyes said the Justice Department letter chilled the CIA's willingness to comply with the committee's requests for information and witnesses. That has since been clarified, he said. The Justice Department told the committee Tuesday that the attorney general is not advising the CIA to withhold documents.
Justice Department officials denied they had changed their stance on the investigation. They said their letter did not specifically forbid the CIA to testify or provide documents, something the officials said they have no authority to do. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the letter.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, however, has refused to immediately provide details of the Justice Department's own investigation to the congressional judiciary committees out of fear that could taint what may become a criminal case.
From NPR reports and The Associated Press
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