January 3, 2008 (LPAC)--U.S. Attorney General Mukasey yesterday announced that the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation of the destruction of the CIA interrogation tapes. The investigation was opened after a preliminary fact-finding inquiry by the DOJ's National Security Division and the CIA's Inspector General. Mukasey appointed John Durham, Deputy U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to oversee the investigation, after that district's U.S. Attorney recused himself to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest, stemming from other cases involving the CIA, which is headquartered in the E.D. of Virginia.

Yesterday's New York Times carried an op-ed by 9/11 Commission co-chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton denouncing the CIA for refusing to provide requested information to the Commission, concluding, "We call that obstruction."

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers yesterday issued a statement criticizing the Attorney General for not appointing a more independent special counsel, which he said is required by DOJ regulations. "The Justice Departments record over the past seven years of sweeping the administrations misconduct under the rug has left the American public with little confidence in the administration's ability to investigate itself," Conyers's statement said. "Nothing less than a special counsel with a full investigative mandate will meet the tests of independence, transparency and completeness."

Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, speaking last night on MSNBC Countdown, also called the appointment of DUSA Durham inadequate, since the DOJ is one of the agencies likely under investigation, and Durham's boss remains AG Mukasey, whose boss is President Bush. Turley repeatedly noted that it's not just an obstruction investigation, because what was on the tapes was the original crime of the scandal: torture. "It is still a crime, even after the last seven years, to torture suspects," something that no one in Washington - Republicans or Democrats - wants to talk about "because they know that there's a lot of people in the country that like the idea of torturing these people." Turley said, "This investigation now involves a range of crimes and a number of people that make it more serious than what originally triggered Watergate. And I can't imagine a case for a better call for a special counsel."

Meanwhile, the House and Senate Intelligence committees will hold hearings January 16 to question Jose Rodriguez, the CIA clandestine services chief under Porter Goss; Rodriguez ordered tapes destroyed, that reportedly showed CIA officers carrying out torture, including water boarding, of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Intelligence sources have told Executive Intelligence Review that the revelation by CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, that the tapes had been destroyed, was part of a housecleaning by Hayden and other CIA top officials, against the activities of Dick Cheney's man Porter Goss and his coterie of assistants.