The head of the C.I.A., Michael Hayden, announced the agency destroyed tapes of what he called a “harsh interrogation”
and what you and I would call torture.
The reason? To protect agency operatives from legal consequences.

This is a cover-up of epic proportions.
On the Senate floor, Senator Kennedy warned his colleagues,
“We haven’t seen anything like this since the 18-and-a-half-minute gap in the tapes of Richard Nixon.”

So far the attorney general has responded by launching a “preliminary inquiry.”
But the Justice Department and the C.I.A. cannot be trusted to investigate themselves —
these are the very same agencies that authorized and carried out the government’s torture program.
Only an independent prosecutor can get at the truth.

The ACLU is planning to deliver a petition to Attorney General Mukasey and members of Congress
demanding an independent prosecutor to investigate crimes that may have been committed by the CIA personnel or other top administration officials.

Link to sign petition