Reps. say torture probe will continue

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Reps. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Jane Harman, D-Calif., vowed to continue the investigation of the CIA's alleged destruction of waterboarding tapes.

The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has been investigating whether tapes of CIA interrogations were illegally destroyed to conceal the use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique viewed by many as a method of torture.

Last week the Justice Department asked Congress to stop its investigation until an internal probe is completed but House leaders on intelligence said they won't heed the request.

"We want to hold the (intelligence) community accountable for what's happened with these tapes," Hoekstra said Sunday during an interview Sunday with Chris Wallace on the Fox News channel.

The CIA "did not tell us about the existence of these tapes," he said. "They did not tell us they were going to be destroyed."

Harman said there is no reason why internal and House investigations cannot run concurrently.

She also told "Fox News Sunday" that she wrote a letter in 2003 when she was the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, specifically asking the Justice Department not to destroy any such tapes.

"It smells like the cover up of the cover up," she said.