STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And NPR's Tom Gjelten reports that these parallel inquiries may now raise the question of which is more important.
TOM GJELTEN: The case of the destroyed CIA videotapes raised concerns in Congress and in the Justice Department for different reasons. Congressional leaders were unhappy the agency destroyed the interrogation tapes without telling them. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has scheduled a hearing into the matter on January 16th.
SILVESTRE REYES: There are a number of questions that we have about what created the situation we're in today. That is, why the committee was not informed about the debate within the agency about potentially destroying the videotape.
GJELTEN: Meanwhile, the Justice Department is moving ahead with its criminal investigation. Stephen Saltzburg of the George Washington University Law School says the destruction of the interrogation tapes could be a crime, even if no court had ordered that the tapes be preserved.
STEPHEN SALTZBURG: It is possible to obstruct justice before an investigation begins, if the person who is destroying evidence has reason to believe that there will be some kind of a formal proceeding and the intent is to assure that this evidence is not available.
GJELTEN: Chairman Reyes says his committee will consider its oversight responsibility versus the Justice Department's prosecution responsibility. He won't say what the committee will do, but he's not promising to stay out of the Justice Department's way.
REYES: Just like we would not expect justice to comply with a request from us that might compromise their rule, we certainly are not going to agree to do anything just simply because the Department of Justice ask us.
GJELTEN: Stephen Saltzburg, who served as an independent counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation 20 years ago, says the controversy over the destruction of the interrogation videotapes is so important that the congressional oversight committees may choose to move ahead with their inquiries regardless of the impact on the criminal investigation.
SALTZBURG: Now, I think Congress is of a mind to say that oversight matters, that Congress has a role to play in deciding what kind of interrogation techniques are permissible. And that may be, in terms of American credibility and the world view of the United States, that may be more important for Congress to get this right than prosecuting every single person who might possibly be prosecuted for a crime that could be discovered.
GJELTEN: Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.