Will the Department of Justice and CIA “joint inquiry” into the Agency’s destruction of the al Qaeda torture tapes be another Bush-era whitewash? Perhaps. The Department of Justice seems hopelessly conflicted in any such investigation. But this portion of Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein’s letter to CIA Acting General Counsel, John Rizzo, may suggest some DOJ displeasure with CIA:
“I understand that your office has already reviewed the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the videotapes, as well as the existence of any pending relevant investigations or other preservation obligations at the time the destruction occurred. As a first step in our inquiry, I ask that you provide us the substance of that review at the meeting,” Wainstein wrote.
I don’t want to over-read that one paragraph, but “give us everything you got, pronto” makes the “joint” in joint inquiry seem little more than a face-saving fig leaf for CIA, especially as CIA Director Michael Hayden “welcomes” the inquiry. Do you really welcome your own inquiry, or is that the tell that DOJ has the lead on this one?
Keep in mind that CIA told DOJ years ago that no such tapes existed, a representation that DOJ in turn made–falsely, it now turns out– to a U.S. District Court judge in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was himself a U.S. District Court judge for nearly two decades.* Outrage at that sort of misrepresentation is too woven into the DNA of a federal court judge for Mukasey not to bristle still at the prospect of such a thing having occurred.
I’d still wager on whitewash, but this is worth watching.
*This post originally misstated when Mukasey stepped down from the bench. I regret the error.
