CIA director admits agency lax about tape data

Washington: CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has acknowledged that the agency failed to keep key congressional committees adequately informed of the CIA's decision to destroy videotapes of secret interrogations.

"I think that it's fair to say that, particularly at the time of the destruction, we could have done an awful lot better in keeping the committee alerted and informed as to that activity," Hayden said on Wednesday in brief remarks after a three-hour meeting with the House Intelligence Committee on the tapes controversy.

Hayden's comment appeared to be a retreat from his initial statement on the matter last week, when he told the CIA's work force in a written memo that congressional oversight committees had known of the agency's intention to dispose of the tapes and were notified after they were destroyed.

Hayden's acknowledgment comes at a time when the director has been on a public relations campaign touting the agency's commitment to congressional oversight as part of an effort to build public trust in the CIA's handling of its activities in the war on terrorism.

Failure

The leaders of the House Intelligence Committee chastised the CIA for failing to keep the panel informed on a series of issues, including the creation and subsequent destruction of videotapes showing agency operatives using harsh interrogation techniques on Al Qaida operatives.

"There is a tremendous amount of frustration," said Rep Silvestre Reyes, Democrat-Texas, the chairman of the committee. "We feel, on a bipartisan level, that our committee was not informed, has not been kept informed and we are very frustrated about that issue."