Alberto Gonzales Involved in CIA Tape Distruction Decision

Now here's a suprise from CNN:

Alberto Gonzales and other top White House lawyers took part in discussions about destroying CIA videotapes of interrogation of two al Qaeda suspects, the New York Times reported Tuesday night on its Web site.

Alberto Gonzales was White House counsel until early 2005, when he became U.S. attorney general.

At least four top White House lawyers discussed the issue with the CIA between 2003 and 2005, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials the newspaper did not identify.

Gonzales, the former attorney general who served as White House counsel until early 2005, was among those who took part, the officials said.

Also involved, according to the Times' sources, were David Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet Miers, who succeeded Gonzales as White House counsel.

One former senior intelligence official told the Times there had been "vigorous sentiment" among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes.

Other officials asserted that no one at the White House advocated destroying the tapes, the newspaper said. Those officials added that no White House lawyer gave a direct order to preserve the tapes or advised that destroying them would be illegal.

U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy on Tuesday ordered Justice Department lawyers to appear before him at 11 a.m. Friday to discuss whether destroying the tapes, which showed two al Qaeda suspects being questioned, violated a court order.