Account of C.I.A. Tapes Is Challenge

By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE

Published: January 17, 2008

WASHINGTON — The former Central Intelligence Agency official who authorized the destruction in 2005 of videotapes documenting harsh interrogation of detainees from Al Qaeda gave the order despite apparently being directed to preserve the tapes, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday.

Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, said Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., head of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service at the time, had not “gotten authority from anyone” to destroy the tapes.

“Matter of fact, it appears that he got direction to make sure the tapes were not destroyed,” he said.

Mr. Hoekstra spoke after hearing testimony from John A. Rizzo, the C.I.A.’s top lawyer, who addressed the committee on Wednesday during a closed session lasting nearly four hours.

Mr. Hoekstra did not provide details, including who may have told Mr. Rodriguez not to destroy the tapes. The lawmaker said it was important to have Mr. Rodriguez testify before the committee to get his version of events.

A lawyer for Mr. Rodriguez, Robert S. Bennett, challenged Mr. Hoekstra’s comments about what agency officials told his client.

“Nobody, to our knowledge, ever instructed him not to destroy the tapes,” Mr. Bennett said. “Had the director or deputy director or general counsel told him not to destroy the tapes, they would not have been destroyed.”

Mr. Rizzo was the first C.I.A. official with direct knowledge of the events surrounding the destruction of the tapes to appear before the House Intelligence Committee, which is in the midst of an investigation that could last for several months. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, testified before the committee last month, and lawmakers have said they intend to call several current and former officials from the C.I.A. and the White House to appear before the House panel.

A federal prosecutor, John H. Durham, is currently leading a separate criminal investigation to determine whether Mr. Rodriguez or other officials may have broken any laws by destroying the tapes or concealing them from the courts and the national Sept. 11 commission. The tapes showed agency operatives using harsh interrogation methods on two Qaeda detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Agency officers began taping detainees in April 2002 and stopped the videotaping by the end of that year out of concern the tapes could leak and put C.I.A. operatives at physical and legal risk.

Mr. Rodriguez has told former colleagues that he consulted with two C.I.A. lawyers before giving the destruction order. Several intelligence officials have said that the lawyers, Steven Hermes and Robert Eatinger, told Mr. Rodriguez that he had the authority to destroy the tapes and that it would not be illegal to do so.

The intelligence officials cautioned, however, that the lawyers did not give Mr. Rodriguez approval to dispose of the tapes and that senior agency officials expected him to get their permission before acting. Senior White House officials were consulted about the tapes several times over three years, but it remains unclear if anyone at the White House favored the destruction of the tapes.

Mr. Rodriguez, who is under subpoena from the House committee, has declined to testify without a grant of immunity.

Mr. Bennett acknowledged that Mr. Rodriguez did not seek permission from Mr. Rizzo, Porter J. Goss, then the C.I.A. director, or from any other C.I.A. official before giving the destruction order.

Representative Silvestre Reyes, the Texas Democrat who is chairman of the intelligence committee, called it “simply unacceptable” that members of Congress were not informed promptly after the videotapes were destroyed.