US lawmakers refuse to back down from CIA tape probe

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Lawmakers rejected US administration calls Sunday to back away from investigating the destruction of interrogation tapes by the CIA, calling the spy agency "incompetent" and "arrogant."

Republican and Democratic lawmakers insisted that Congress should press ahead with its probe after US Attorney General Michael Mukasey pleaded for a delay on grounds that it could harm his Justice Department's own inquiry.

"We want to hold the (intelligence) community accountable for what has happened with these tapes," Representative Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican in the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Sunday.

Hoekstra charged that the US spy agencies were beset by "systemic" problems, including its false intelligence on Iraq's alleged...