The Democratic assault on the CIA’s tough interrogation tactics against al Qaeda and other terrorists after 9/11 was pushed Wednesday to a new level when a top senator accusing the Bush White House of playing a role in the destruction of video evidence of “torture.”
Sen. Carl Levin, the retiring chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said it “reminds me of Watergate.”
The Michigan senator was referring to a section of the Democratic report on the CIA tactics released Tuesday that noted the destruction of videos the day after his proposal to establish an independent commission to probe the interrogations and allegations of abuse fell a dozen votes short in a Senate vote November 8, 2005.
Levin, at a Christian Science Monitor reporter’s roundtable, noted that page 443 of the Senate report details his efforts to push the commission and the concerns by the CIA that it would be required to turn the secret videos over.
But after his plan died, said the report, quoted by Levin, “the CIA destroyed the interrogation video tapes the following day.”
Levin then cited a footnote in the report, No. 2,488, that quoted a CIA official seeking White House approval to destroy the tapes. “Senator Levin’s legislative proposal for a 9/11 type outside commission to be established on detainees, seems to be gaining some traction, which obviously serve to surface the tapes existence.”
He said the official added there should be “one more” try to get “the right people downtown, that’s the White House, on board with the notion of our destroying the tapes.”
Levin said the note “reminds me of Watergate,” the coverup that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency, in part due to secret tapes he made in the Oval Office.
The report did not note who in the White House would have given approval, or been asked for approval, and Levin said that he also didn’t know the point person in the West Wing of the Bush White House.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
