A key GOP lawmaker says: DOJ Can't Stop Torture Tape Probe

[kpete]

House vows to pursue CIA inquiry

A key GOP lawmaker says his committee will investigate the destruction of interrogation tapes over the objections of the Justice Department.

By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 17, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee vowed Sunday to press ahead with the congressional investigation of the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes, despite the strenuous objections of the Justice Department.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan said Congress would call witnesses and demand documents in order to investigate the CIA's decision to destroy videotapes of the interrogations of two suspected Al Qaeda operatives.

"We want to hold the (intelligence) community accountable for what's happened with these tapes," Hoekstra said. "I think we will issue subpoenas."

On Friday, the Justice Department said it would not cooperate with any congressional investigation, contending that giving lawmakers information could subject the inquiry to political pressures. Immediately after that announcement, Hoekstra and the committee chairman, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), said they were stunned that the Justice Department was trying to block the investigation.

more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tapes17dec17,1,7842737.story?track=rss&ctrack=3&cset=true

[mac2]

1. Stunned?

by the "Injustice Department"? Where have these representatives been? The Justice Department has ignored all laws and the Constitution since Bush took\stole\bought power. Their honest and experienced federal employees fired or left.

Privatization of everything in our society has left us in the dust...or in the pile of rubble.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2007/12/16/310542.html?title=Roof+collapses+at+central+Pasco+jail&iref=topnews

Is this a privatized jail? It looks less well built than a trailer. Are we tax payers being ripped off? Ya! Whose the crooks the owners or the inmates?

My husband read in the Wall Street Journal that the government is considering putting activists in mental institutions. Trafactant (D-OH) is already in one.

Where has Congress and the media been all this time? On the way to the bank?

[L. Coyote]

2. "It smells like the coverup of the coverup."

Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - Dec 17, 2007 - http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004921.php

"It smells like the coverup of the coverup."
That's Rep. Jane Harman's (D-CA) take (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tapes17dec17,1,7842737.story?track=rss&ctrack=3&cset=true). And Rep. Pete Hoekstra's (R-MI) wasn't any different.

In case you were already out the door late Friday afternoon when the news broke (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004919.php), the Justice Department, along with the CIA's inspector general, informed the House intelligence committee that they'd told the CIA not to cooperate with the committee's investigation into the CIA's torture tapes. Congress would just have to wait until the joint Justice Department-CIA probe was done (when? who knows) before they got any answers. The reason given was that it would "jeopardize" the Justice Department's investigation if the CIA gave the committee all the information it wanted while at the same time cooperating with the DoJ inquiry.

Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) and Hoekstra pronounced themselves "stunned." (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004919.php) There's "no basis" for the DoJ to do that, they said. Harman, the former ranking member on the committee, said the same yesterday.

The ground is being laid for an ol' fashioned separation-of-powers showdown. Hoekstra went further, saying "I think we will issue subpoenas." With Republican backup, it should prove pretty easy for Reyes to pull the trigger. Hoekstra even singled out CIA Director Mike Hayden, promising to hold him "accountable."

..............