About Face

Faced with the threat of subpoenas, the CIA has reversed its position from last week and is now signaling that the agency will cooperate with an aggressive congressional investigation into the destruction of hundreds of hours of videotapes believed to show the use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques on two suspected top Al Qaeda leaders, Newsweek has learned.

Follow your favorite NEWSWEEK columnists

Customize the Newsweek homepage to feature the latest word from your favorite columnists.

News that the CIA would cooperate with the congressional inquiry came one day after House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes and ranking member Rep. Pete Hoekstra sent CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden a letter saying their panel would proceed with its probe--despite a joint request last week from the agency's Inspector General and the Justice Department urging the committee to back off. The agency's apparent change of heart came in the wake of a New York Times report alleging that top White House lawyers were consulted and discussed the fate of the tapes, a development that raises the political stakes in the congressional probe.

Tuesday's letter to the agency from Reyes and Hoekstra warned Hayden directly that their committee intended to subpoena documents and testimony from top CIA officials. The panel also began drafting subpoenas seeking, among other items, all records of communications about the tapes between the CIA and other executive branch officials--a request that would cover the agency's consultations with the White House. Copies of unsigned subpoenas have already been provided to the CIA.

The House panel is also seeking testimony--for a hearing tentatively scheduled for Jan. 16--from two central figures in the tapes controversy: acting CIA general counsel John Rizzo and Jose Rodriguez, former chief of the CIA's National Clandestine Service. Rodriguez is said to have given the order to destroy the tapes in Nov. 2005 after consulting with agency lawyers. In addition, the committee wants copies of all agency records relating to the retention and destruction of the tapes, along with any legal advice agency officials received. The House panel has asked for the CIA to begin turning over the documents by the end of this week.

Hoekstra told Newsweek that the CIA has told the committee that they are "99 percent confident" that Rizzo will "show up" for the January 16 hearing. Hoekstra added that ultimately, the committee wants to hear from "all the people involved in the decision making, including the White House."

Just last week, the Justice Department and the CIA inspector general sent the House panel a letter asking it to delay its inquiry to allow a preliminary investigation into whether the destruction violated any criminal laws to proceed. But Reyes and Hoekstra refused to back down and this week, a committee official said, Justice officials said the department no longer had any objection to the CIA cooperating.  Reyes and Hoekstra subsequently fired off their letter raising the prospect of subpoenas if the CIA didn't fully cooperate.