CIA

February 11, 2008 -- Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, General Mike Hayden on 9/11 War Crimes Charges:    » read more »

February 8, 2008 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today urged the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Michael McConnell to provide the transcript of a recent interview with New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright. At issue is the exact conversation held between Director McConnell and Wright over the subject of waterboarding. Senator Feinstein questioned Director McConnell about this exchange during the open Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Following is the text of the letter sent by Senator Feinstein to DNI McConnell:    » read more »

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who also sits on the panel, sent a letter Thursday urging Attorney General Michael Mukasey to clarify testimony given to the Committee during last week’s Department of Justice oversight hearing. In the letter, they ask the Attorney General to explain the scope of the Department’s investigation into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing the use of harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, of al Qaeda terrorist suspects.    » read more »

February 6, 2008 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey whether it is legal for the CIA to rely on contractors in interrogations that involve the use of coercive interrogation techniques.

Senator Feinstein’s letter came one day after CIA Director General Michael Hayden, in response to questions from Senator Feinstein during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, acknowledged for the first time that the CIA sometimes uses contractors in interrogations.    » read more »

07 February 2008 -- Lawmakers pressed the U.S. attorney general on Thursday for more specifics about the legal justifications used by the Bush administration in authorizing the past use of the extreme interrogation technique known as waterboarding. The subject was also a major topic in congressional hearings, and the focus of more questions at a White House briefing, as the debate continues over interrogation techniques.    » read more »

February 6, 2008 -- Washington, DC – Following recent statements by the U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) reiterated his call for the Senate to support the National Security with Justice Act (S.1876), legislation that prohibits all United States personnel from using on a detainee any interrogation technique not expressly authorized by the Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation.    » read more »

06 February 2008 -- The White House is defending the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding in certain, rare circumstances when suspects are believed to have knowledge of an imminent threat. The Central Intelligence Agency now admits it used the technique roughly five years ago on three top terror suspects.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto says President Bush personally authorized the disclosure - breaking with the long-standing practice in the administration of refusing comment on specific interrogation techniques.    » read more »

February 5, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. -- In response to CIA Director Hayden’s admission today that the Administration has used waterboarding on three detainees, Senator Dick Durbin called for the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of the Administration’s use of waterboarding.    » read more »

05 February 2008 -- The director of the Central Intelligence Agency has confirmed that his agency used the extreme interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three terrorism suspects nearly five years ago. In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, Michael Hayden urged lawmakers not to place restrictions on the interrogation methods available to U.S. intelligence agencies.

Director Hayden's testimony was the most detailed description to date of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques.    » read more »

January 8, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy sent the following letter to Attorney General Mukasey, commending his decision to initiate a criminal investigation into the destruction of the CIA interrogation tapes. The letter also urged the Attorney General to investigate the conduct that was depicted on the tapes, as well as their destruction, noting that our laws against torture are every bit as important as our laws against obstruction of justice.

The text of the letter appears below.

January 8, 2008

The Honorable Michael Mukasey    » read more »

Renews His Call For a Special Counsel to be Appointed

January 2, 2008 -- Washington, DC – The Department of Justice announced today that it would open a full criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes.

On December 9, 2007, Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) was the first to call on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the CIA's destruction of the tapes. Today, Sen. Biden renewed his call for a Special Counsel and issued the following statement:    » read more »

December 18, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy sent the following letter to Robert S. Mueller III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, regarding the destruction by the CIA of videotapes of the interrogation of two detainees.

Senator Kennedy requests notification as to whether or not the FBI has retained such videotapes or transcripts, and if so, that they be preserved and make available for inspection.

The text of the letter is below.

December 18, 2007

Robert S. Mueller III

Director    » read more »

Washington, D.C. -- December 18, 2007 -- U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today appeared on CNN’s American Morning where he discussed Senator Reid’s decision to delay consideration of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until January. He also addressed Attorney General Mukasey’s refusal to accommodate Senator Specter and Senator Leahy’s request for information regarding the destruction of the CIA tapes.

A transcript of the interview is below:    » read more »

December 17, 2007 -- (Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey reiterating the Chairman's request to have a Department of Justice representative testify at Thursday's hearing on the "Applicability of Federal Criminal Laws to the Interrogation of Detainees."    » read more »

Wapello, IA (December 15, 2007) - Yesterday Attorney General Michael Mukasey "rejected lawmakers' demands for information", thus blocking bipartisan inquiries into the CIA interrogation tapes scandal. [CNN, Washington Post, 12/15/07] The Bush administration also rebuffed calls for the appointment of a Special Counsel to conduct an independent investigation free of political interference.

Sen. Joe Biden issued the following statement:    » read more »