Mukasey: Criminal Enquiry Into CIA Tapes

By Cernig From the AP: The U.S. Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Wednesday that he appointed an outside prosecutor to oversee the case. The CIA acknowledged last month that it destroyed videos of officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects. The acknowledgment sparked a congressional inquiry and a preliminary investigation by Justice. "The Department's National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation," Mukasey said in a statement released Wednesday. It's taken Mukasey less time to decide destroying the tapes is possibly criminal than it has to say clearly that he thinks that the actions shown in them might be. What gives there? Steve Benen, guesting for Drum, has all the relevant links for knowledgeable early comment on this story. And while all of us on the Left are wondering if this means Mukasey has a spine after all, or whether it's a fox-in-the-henhouse pretense at an investigation, at least one wingnut has already decided this means Bush's pick as AG is a spineless puppet of the vast liberal conspiracy.