"The executive branch can't be trusted to oversee itself," the lawmakers concluded.
Hoekstra Blasts CIA, Threatens Subpoenas
For his part, Hoekstra issued a blistering attack on the CIA and on the complex network of U.S. intelligence agencies in general, which he described as arrogant, incompetent and unaccountable.
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Hoekstra warned that he will push the House Intelligence Committee to subpoena the Justice Department and the CIA if they refuse to cooperate. "We want to hold the [intelligence] community accountable for what's happened to these tapes," he said. "We will issue subpoenas."
Asked if witnesses will be offered immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony, Hoekstra replied that "Once these witness appear in front of the committee, then I think we'll have to make the decision as to whether we're going to provide them with immunity or not. But our investigation should move forward."
Hoekstra said CIA Director Hayden should be held accountable for what he called misleading statements by the agency during his term, which began in 2006 after the tapes had been destroyed.
Showdown Looming Between All Three Government Branches Not Seen Since Watergate
The latest developments in what administration critics are branding as "Torturegate" raise the prospect of a constitutional confrontation between all three branches of government of a magnitude not seen since the early 1970s, when President Richard Nixon's administration stonewalled congressional and judicial investigations of executive-branch wrongdoing in the Watergate scandal.
Nixon's cover-up of the 1972 break-in of the Democrats' national headquarters at Washington's Watergate complex by burglars employed by Nixon's re-election campaign eventually unraveled and destroyed his presidency, which ended in 1974 with Nixon's resignation under threat of certain impeachment and removal from office by Congress.
The drama also come less than a week after The 'Skeeter Bites Report revealed exclusively that a U.S. attorney in Virginia, in a letter to a federal appeals court, disclosed that his office viewed two CIA interrogation tapes two months ago, contrary to CIA Director Michael Hayden's public statements that the tapes were destroyed in 2005.
9/11 Suspects May Be on Still-Surviving CIA Videos in Moussaoui Case
Zubaydah was the first high-value al-Qaida operative to be captured by the CIA in 2002. Al-Nashiri is the alleged coordinator of the suicide attack in 2000 on the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 sailors.
Both Zubaydah and Al-Nashiri may also be on the two CIA tapes that Charles Rosenberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, disclosed in a letter obtained by The 'Skeeter Bites Report that his office viewed on September 19 and October 18 of this year -- contrary to public statements by CIA Director Michael Hayden that the tapes were destroyed in 2005.
Rosenberg's letter referred to the 2006 trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the lone suspect convicted in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that killed over 3,000 people and destroyed the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.
That remains unclear, however, because Rosenberg's heavily-edited October 27 letter to U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema, who presided over the Moussaoui trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and to Judge Karen Williams, chief judge of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the state capital, Richmond, contained no references to the identities of the al-Qaida suspects whom CIA agents were interrogating.
But the apparent continued existence of the two tapes -- combined with the administration's stonewalling with congressional and judicial probes into the CIA's interrogation tactics -- has given critics new ammunition to accuse the White House of engaging in a cover-up of torture by the CIA.
Hoekstra Blasts CIA, Threatens Subpoenas
For his part, Hoekstra issued a blistering attack on the CIA and on the complex network of U.S. intelligence agencies in general, which he described as arrogant, incompetent and unaccountable.
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Hoekstra warned that he will push the House Intelligence Committee to subpoena the Justice Department and the CIA if they refuse to cooperate. "We want to hold the [intelligence] community accountable for what's happened to these tapes," he said. "We will issue subpoenas."
Hoekstra said CIA Director Hayden should be held accountable for what he called misleading statements by the agency during his term, which began in 2006 after the tapes had been destroyed.
Showdown Looming Between All Three Government Branches Not Seen Since Watergate
The latest developments in what administration critics are branding as "Torturegate" raise the prospect of a constitutional confrontation between all three branches of government of a magnitude not seen since the early 1970s, when President Richard Nixon's administration stonewalled congressional and judicial investigations of executive-branch wrongdoing in the Watergate scandal.
Nixon's cover-up of the 1972 break-in of the Democrats' national headquarters at Washington's Watergate complex by burglars employed by Nixon's re-election campaign eventually unraveled and destroyed his presidency, which ended in 1974 with Nixon's resignation under threat of certain impeachment and removal from office by Congress.
The drama also come less than a week after The 'Skeeter Bites Report revealed exclusively that a U.S. attorney in Virginia, in a letter to a federal appeals court, disclosed that his office viewed two CIA interrogation tapes two months ago, contrary to CIA Director Michael Hayden's public statements that the tapes were destroyed in 2005.
9/11 Suspects May Be on Still-Surviving CIA Videos in Moussaoui Case
Zubaydah was the first high-value al-Qaida operative to be captured by the CIA in 2002. Al-Nashiri is the alleged coordinator of the suicide attack in 2000 on the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 sailors.
Both Zubaydah and Al-Nashiri may also be on the two CIA tapes that Charles Rosenberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, disclosed in a letter obtained by The 'Skeeter Bites Report that his office viewed on September 19 and October 18 of this year -- contrary to public statements by CIA Director Michael Hayden that the tapes were destroyed in 2005.
Rosenberg's letter referred to the 2006 trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the lone suspect convicted in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that killed over 3,000 people and destroyed the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.
That remains unclear, however, because Rosenberg's heavily-edited October 27 letter to U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema, who presided over the Moussaoui trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and to Judge Karen Williams, chief judge of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the state capital, Richmond, contained no references to the identities of the al-Qaida suspects whom CIA agents were interrogating.
But the apparent continued existence of the two tapes -- combined with the administration's stonewalling with congressional and judicial probes into the CIA's interrogation tactics -- has given critics new ammunition to accuse the White House of engaging in a cover-up of torture by the CIA.
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