Justice Opens Criminal Probe in CIA Torture Tape Case
The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, sources say, and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey appointed an outside prosecutor to oversee the case.
The CIA acknowledged last month that it destroyed videos of officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects. The acknowledgment sparked a congressional inquiry and a preliminary investigation by the Justice Department.
"The Department's National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation," Mukasey said in a statement released Wednesday.
Mukasey named John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut who has a reputation as one of the nation's most relentless prosecutors, to oversee the case. He served as an outside prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the FBI's use of mob informants in Boston and helped send several Connecticut public officials to prison, according to the Associated Press and other news organizations.