The US Justice Department opened on Wednesday a criminal investigation into the destruction of interrogation videotapes by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

 

"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," Attorney General Michael Mukasey said in a statement.

 

However, he noted "the opening of an investigation does not mean that criminal charges will necessarily follow."

 

A federal prosecutor, John Durham, was appointed to oversee the investigation and lead agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in determining whether the CIA broke any laws in destroying the tapes.

 

Mukasey described the first assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut as "a widely respected and experienced career prosecutor" who had supervised a wide range of complex investigations.

 

For its part, CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the agency "will of course cooperate fully with this investigation as it has with the others into this matter."

 

CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged last month that the agency has made videotapes of interrogating two terrorist suspects in 2002 and destroyed them three years later.

 

The destruction of the tapes was condemned by Congress and human rights groups as an attempt to cover up interrogation practices such as "water boarding" that were widely seen as torture. The acknowledgment sparked a congressional inquiry and a preliminary investigation by Justice Department and CIA.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 3, 2008)