General Michael Hayden, the CIA's director, testified yesterday in a closed session before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
(Susan Walsh/Associated Press)
WASHINGTON - CIA Director Michael Hayden told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed hearing yesterday that he was unable to answer key questions about the destruction of interrogation videotapes because the decisions were made before he worked at the CIA.
Hayden told reporters after the closed-door hearing that he had "a chance to lay out the narrative, the history of why the tapes were destroyed."
But because the tapes were made in 2002 under then-CIA Director George Tenet, and were destroyed in 2005 under another director, former representative Porter Goss, Republican of Florida, Hayden said he is unable to answer all the committee's questions.
Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the intelligence panel's chairman, told reporters that the hearing was "useful and not yet complete" because of Hayden's inability to supply crucial information, including who authorized the destruction of videotapes and why lawmakers were not told about it sooner, or at all.
Hayden's appearance in front of the intelligence panel followed his disclosure last week that the CIA had destroyed recordings of the interrogations of suspected Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaida and another senior captive, identified by intelligence officials as Abd al-Rahim Nashiri. Hayden said the destruction was necessary to protect the identities of CIA personnel who appear on the tapes, but many lawmakers and defense attorneys have alleged it was an attempt to cover up illegal torture.
Hayden's appearance followed disclosures by a former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, who said that the use of a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding on Zubaida elicited information that "probably saved lives" but also amounted to torture.
Kiriakou's public remarks prompted Hayden to send a reminder to CIA employees yesterday about the importance of not disclosing classified information, intelligence officials said.
The Justice Department and the CIA inspector general have launched a joint inquiry into whether CIA officials obstructed justice or tampered with evidence by destroying the videotapes after federal courts had ordered the government to preserve materials related to interrogations and when the Sept. 11 Commission was seeking information. The House and Senate intelligence committees have announced their own investigations of the tape destruction. Hayden is scheduled to participate in another closed-door hearing before the House panel today.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey declined to comment yesterday on the ongoing Justice probe or whether a special prosecutor should be appointed in the case, as suggested by Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada and others.
Mukasey, whose confirmation was nearly undone after he refused to say whether waterboarding amounted to torture, said he is still studying the legal issues.
Intelligence officials have said that the destruction was ordered in November 2005 by Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the CIA's director of clandestine operations and that CIA attorneys approved the decision. Administration officials have said that Justice Department and White House lawyers, including longtime Bush aide Harriet Miers, had recommended against destroying the tapes.
President Bush, echoing previous remarks by his aides, said yesterday that he did not know about the tapes or their destruction until last week. "My first recollection of whether the tapes existed or whether they were destroyed was when Michael Hayden briefed me," Bush said in an interview yesterday with ABC News.
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