WASHINGTON: No criminal charges will be filed against US intelligence officials accused of destroying videotapes showing CIA interrogations of terror suspects, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.In a statement, the department said that after an “exhaustive investigation” an official heading the probe decided that he “will not pursue criminal charges” for the destruction of the tapes, which are believed to have been filmed at secret CIA prisons.
In January 2008, then-US attorney general Michael Mukasey opened an inquiry into the revelation a few weeks earlier that the CIA three years earlier had destroyed tapes showing harsh interrogations of two Al-Qaeda suspects.
The interrogations were said to have occurred in the months following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
At the time the probe was launched, then-CIA director Michael Hayden said the tapes had been destroyed to protect the identities of intelligence agents charged with interrogating the suspects.
Some US lawmakers and international rights campaigners dismissed the explanation however, charging that the destruction of the tapes was meant to cover up alleged detainee torture. — AFP
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