Lawyers cleared destruction of tapes

The involvement of agency lawyers in the decision-making would widen the scope of the inquiries into the matter.

The former intelligence official acknowledged that there had been nearly two years of debate among government agencies about what to do with the tapes, and that lawyers within the White House and the Justice Department had in 2003 advised against a plan to destroy them. But the official said that CIA officials had continued to press the White House for a firm decision, and that the CIA was never given a direct order not to destroy the tapes.

“They never told us, ‘Hell, no’,” he said. “If somebody had said, ‘You cannot destroy them’, we would not have destroyed them.” He said he was sympathetic to Jose A Rodriguez Jr, former chief of the clandestine branch, who has been described by intelligence officials as having authorised the destruction of the tapes.