http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=cqmidday-000002641162Intelligence Panel Casts Wide Net in Tapes Probe
Leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday they plan to call two former Central Intelligence Agency directors as they began what is expected to be a months-long probe of the destruction of secret interrogation videotapes.
The current CIA director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden , acknowledged lawmakers’ complaints that they were kept in the dark about the tapes and the 2005 decision to destroy them, contrary to his previous remarks.
“I think it’s fair to say — particularly at the time of destruction — we could have done a heck of a lot better keeping the committees informed,” Hayden said after a three-hour session with the committee. Hayden did not take over at the CIA until last year.
The meeting came as the House decided to delay until Thursday its consideration of the final version of the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill, which contains a provision to bar the CIA from using a number of specific harsh interrogation tactics that have become controversial. Aides said the crowded Wednesday schedule led to the delay.
House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes , D-Texas, and ranking Republican Peter Hoekstra of Michigan said they were interested in calling before the panel Porter J. Goss, who was CIA director when the tapes were destroyed in 2005, and George Tenet, chief of the agency when they were made in 2002. They also said they wanted to talk to Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the clandestine service, who reportedly presided over the tapes’ destruction, and former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte.
They said the probe would take months and result in recommendations to House leadership.
Reyes said some members described what they learned in the Hayden briefing as “stunning,” but did not elaborate.
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