Destruction of CIA Tapes May Have Violated a Court Order
A federal judge will investigate whether the action defied his instructions to the federal government to preserve evidence in terrorism detentions.
WASHINGTON - Over the objections of the Justice Department, a federal judge said Tuesday he would explore whether the U.S. had violated a court order to preserve evidence when the CIA destroyed videotaped interrogations of two terrorism suspects in 2005.
U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. set a hearing for Friday in Washington in response to a request from Yemeni prisoners who are challenging their detention by the U.S. at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Much of the evidence against the defendants consists of accusations by other prisoners, whom the lawyers think may have been coerced.
The issue of coercive interrogations has taken on new primacy after disclosures this month that the CIA had destroyed videotapes of interrogations of purported Al Qaeda members Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
The tapes were destroyed by a CIA official in November 2005, at a time of growing congressional and public concern about U.S. tactics in the war on terrorism, including interrogation techniques.
It was also five months after Kennedy, in the case of the Yemeni prisoners, issued an order requiring that the U.S. preserve and maintain “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees now” at Guantanamo Bay. According to court papers, government lawyers said at the time that a formal order was not necessary because they were “well aware of their obligation not to destroy evidence that may be relevant in pending litigation.”
Destroying evidence relevant to a legislative or judicial proceeding could constitute obstruction of justice. Kennedy could also sanction the government in the case of the Yemeni defendants if he found that the U.S. had violated his order.
In court papers filed last week, the Justice Department argued that the videos weren’t covered by the order because at the time Zubaydah and al-Nashiri were being held in secret CIA prisons overseas. The men were later transferred to the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Government lawyers also said that a judicial inquiry would be “unnecessary and potentially disruptive” in light of a pending Justice Department inquiry into whether crimes were committed when the tapes were destroyed. The department’s national security division, in conjunction with the CIA inspector general, is conducting a preliminary investigation.
Citing that inquiry, the department last week informed senior congressional leaders that neither it nor the CIA would cooperate with congressional investigations into the destruction of the tapes.
“Plainly the government wants only foxes guarding this henhouse,” the defense lawyers in the Yemeni cases said in a filing with the court Monday. Some congressional leaders have said they intend to pursue their own investigations without the agencies’ cooperation.
The decision by Kennedy, a 1997 appointee of President Clinton who once ruled that the Bush White House had to preserve backup e-mails sought in a lawsuit about possible violations of federal records laws, was a setback for the department, which has sought to limit the escalating furor over the tapes.
“Obviously, if accusations against our clients have been obtained by torture, their credibility would be seriously undermined,” said David Remes, a Washington lawyer for the Yemeni defendants. “The government has shown here, with the destruction of the CIA tapes, that it is prepared to destroy evidence of its own misconduct, and where there is smoke, there is fire.”
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino declined to answer questions about the order, referring reporters to the Justice Department.
A spokesman for the Justice Department, Erik Albin, declined to comment.
Also on Tuesday, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked the FBI to turn over any copies of recordings it had of the two interrogations. An FBI spokesman said the bureau would review the request, although a senior FBI official said the bureau had never received copies of the tapes.
Times staff writer Josh Meyer contributed to this report.
© 2007 The Los Angeles Times
in other news: dick cheney is hard at work today destroying evidence by trying to burn down the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
can we speed up the hearings please???
www.wexlerwantshearings.com
Shredder overheated?
“Also on Tuesday, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked the FBI to turn over any copies of recordings it had of the two interrogations. An FBI spokesman said the bureau would review the request, although a senior FBI official said the bureau had never received copies of the tapes.”
And the NSA, please; they like tapes. And ODNI.
“In court papers filed last week, the Justice Department argued that the videos weren’t covered by the order because at the time Zubaydah and al-Nashiri were being held in secret CIA prisons overseas.”
Oh, would that be one of those “secret” CIA prisons that doesn’t exist and that prisoners were never flown to from various parts of the world?
This whole administration violates a “court order”.
Why do the bad guys record on tape their henchmen and torturers doing the dirty work? Why don’t they learn from the mob–no paper trail, no recordings, no record of decisions made? You only need those when you are are running a government in accordance with a rule of law. When one is trying to undermine and subvert or at least skirt the latter, then one needs to prevent the coming into existence of a record and evidence of the criminal activities. Or, why did it take years to destroy the tapes?
The answer is that we are in a transitional period in which many are still operating with an inappropriate rule of law mindset. It will take some years to dismantle further the institutions and mentality of the rule of law as it relates to US government conduct in “The War on Terrorism.”
Josh
There seems to be a fascination among those who commit awful deeds to keep a record of it. I recall reading about vets coming home from Iraq with grotesque pictures of dead Iraqis, some of whom they’d killed themselves. They’d show them to people and brag about them.
I suppose that in order to commit atrocities, one must believe one has risen “above” ordinary human actions, has transcended ordinariness, and the pictures and tapes are self-confirming.
In the case of the destroyed tapes, we don’t know if these tapes were specifically ordered to be made or if it’s just SOP to make sure that one is doing what one has been ordered or given permission to do by one’s superiors.
WOW, I bet the whole executive branch and whatever branch Shotgun Dick is in at the moment is just in a tizzy over making a boo boo that might be illegal.
That big mean (mostly republican court) is just laying in wait to catch a slip up.
Could it be entrapment?????
May Have Violated a Court Order?
Did torturing POWs violate an international treaty?
Destruction of CIA Tapes May Have Violated a Court Order - as if that matters any more.
When Bush says vehenmtly and over and over-”We don’t do torture”: he is not truthful.He must be held to accountability and its sanctions.
in other news: dick cheney is hard at work today destroying evidence by trying to burn down the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
satr9prodxns, you take the words out of my mouth. I wonder how many millions and millions of Americans had the same thought, watching tonight’s evening news.
Shit!!! Forget hearings, IMPEACH the bastards and stop playing THEIR games!
Why the fuss over the tapes? Hayden said that they weren’t all that important because there was a written record. Was that paper record the fuel for the fire at Cheney’s office?
Quote: “satr9prodxns December 19th, 2007 11:33 am
in other news: dick cheney is hard at work today destroying evidence by trying to burn down the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building.”
WAIT A SECOND, HERE. Cheney doesn’t use fire; he uses aeroplanes, and … like the following article says.
“The Financing of Fundamentalism, and the Antichrist
What is religious fundamentalism? Who promotes it? What purpose does it serve? And how to curtail it?
by Rev Richard Skaff
Global Research, December 17, 2007″
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7642
And satr9prodxns adds, “can we speed up the hearings please???
www.wexlerwantshearings.com”
I sure hope that that campaign is not just a fraudulent act conducted to try to fool the masses into believing that there’s finally some good being attempted by the Dem. Party and Judiciary Committee. They’re hopefully serious, as in honestly so.
I signed the petition, figuring it can not hurt to sign it; but also wonder why they don’t instead work on stopping the wars on Iraq and Aghanistan with [direct] efforts, if they’re honestly serious about impeachment of Cheney (and hopefully Bush, next, else simultaneously, as is sometimes done with criminal couples or pairs).
I can’t see what difference it makes. They have been cited for contempt of congress, obviously lied us into a war, George routinely violates the law –sometimes he bothers to issue a signing statement.
Nixon was never so lawless. Nobody’s going to bring charges. Why should George care about the law?
Spoilerjohn 12/19/07
If Judge Kennedy looses jurisdiction due to
Government arguments or appellate proceedings
the Dems will cave like a house being wacked
by a tsunami.
Come to think about it they’ll probably cave
before any meaningful decisions come from the
courts. That’s their usual modus operandi.
Perhaps they’re just play-acting an opposition, and even they are tiring of the charade. They may not be “meant” to win, but they ARE meant to provide the notion that “opposition” was voiced.
18 minute hummmmmm