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Senate to launch CIA tapes probe BBC
News A US Senate committee has promised a thorough investigation of the CIA's decision to destroy video tapes of its agents interrogating al-Qaeda suspects. The agency says it wiped the tapes to protect its agents' identities as they no longer had intelligence value. But civil liberties groups say the move appears to be an attempt to destroy evidence that could have brought CIA agents to account.
Human Rights Watch has attacked the decision as "illegal". The CIA confirmed on Thursday allegations in the New York Times that two tapes were destroyed in 2005. Officials feared the tapes could have raised doubts about the legality of the CIA's techniques, the newspaper says. Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, John Rockefeller, a Democrat, called for a thorough investigation into the tapes and their destruction. "Our committee must review the full history and chronology of the tapes, how they were used and the reasons for destroying them, and any communication about them that was provided to the courts and Congress," he said. CIA Director Michael Hayden said key congress members had been informed of the tapes and the decision to wipe them. Jane Harman, a senior Democrat who was on the House Intelligence Committee at the time, said she had been informed of the decision, but was opposed to it. "I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea and urged them in writing not to do it," she told the Associated Press. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the time, told the news agency he did not recall being briefed on the matter at all. Disingenuous The revelations have drawn criticism from civil liberties and human rights groups. Jennifer Daskal, senior counsel with Human Rights Watch, said the wiping of the tapes was "destruction of evidence," and described the reasons given by the CIA as "disingenuous".
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