Bush will 'reserve judgment' on CIA tapes

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush said he would reserve judgment about the CIA destroying videoed interrogations of terrorist suspects until all inquiries are done.

"I will render no opinion from the podium," Bush said Thursday during a 50-minute White House news conference. "I'm going to reserve judgment."

The tapes were made during 2002 interrogations of suspected al-Qaida operatives and included techniques like waterboarding critics consider torture. CIA Director Michael Hayden has acknowledged his agency destroyed the tapes in 2005, before he took over as the agency's chief, saying it was to protect the identities of the interrogators.

Bush said he expected the various investigations into the tapes' destruction "will end up enabling all of us to find out what happened."

He reiterated comments that the first recollection he had about the tapes being destroyed was when Hayden briefed him just before the story broke in early December.