Bush urges 'wait and see' on CIA tapes

by shammy on Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:16 pm

22nd December,2007

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Thursday that he did not know about two CIA interrogation videotapes until the spy agency's director recently told him and said he would defer judgment about their destruction until administration officials completed their investigations.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the most recent controversy over the administration's handling of terrorism suspects, Bush said he was confident that the inquiries would "end up enabling us all to find out what exactly happened."

The Justice Department's national security division is conducting a criminal inquiry with the CIA's inspector general, while the House Intelligence Committee has launched its own investigation.

"Let's wait and see what the facts are," Bush said.

At the same time, he defended CIA operatives and others dispatched to undercut terrorist operations: "We're asking people to do hard things, for starters, which is intercept and find terrorists and to spread freedom."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-bush21dec21,1,5996249.story?coll=la-news-a_section&ctrack=1&cset=true