WASHINGTON — Senators from both parties suggested Sunday that the CIA's destruction of videotaped interrogations of two suspected Al Qaeda terrorists could constitute obstruction of justice, carried out as the spy agency's methods were coming under fierce legal scrutiny.
"Burning tapes, destroying evidence -- I don't know how deep this goes. Could there be obstruction of justice? Yes," Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a frequent critic of Bush administration foreign policy, said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
The Justice Department and the CIA's inspector general have launched a preliminary inquiry into the controversial destruction of the tapes, which critics charge was an effort to conceal harsh, possibly illegal interrogations.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Democratic candidate for president, urged Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey to appoint an independent investigator, suggesting the Bush administration could not be trusted to do a thorough job.
"It appears as though there may be an obstruction of justice charge here -- tampering with evidence and destroying evidence," Biden told ABC's "This Week." "The easiest, straightest thing to do is to take it out of the political realm, appoint a special prosecutor and let them decide and call -- call it where it is. Is there a criminal violation? If there is, proceed. If not, don't."
In calling for a special counsel, Biden questioned whether Mukasey was suited to oversee the Justice Department investigation, given his ambivalence during his confirmation hearing over what constitutes torture.
"He's the same guy who couldn't decide whether or not waterboarding was torture, and he's going to be doing this investigation," Biden said.
But Hagel and Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the intelligence panel, disagreed with the need for a special counsel.
Appearing with Hagel on CBS, Rockefeller noted that his committee had already launched an investigation and that CIA Director Michael V. Hayden was scheduled to appear Tuesday to discuss the spy agency's interrogation techniques.
Hayden told CIA staff members last week that the recordings -- made in 2002 and destroyed three years later -- were destroyed to protect against leaks that might have revealed the identities of the interrogators.
