Torture Coverup: Destruction of CIA Tapes May Have Violated Judicial Order

[kpete]

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Torture Coverup: Destruction of CIA Tapes May Have Violated Judicial Order
Buried in the story about how CIA legal counsel may have given consent to the destruction of the CIA torture tapes, we learn of other possible contempt charges.

NY Times:

In a related legal action, lawyers representing 11 inmates of the American military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, filed an emergency motion on Sunday seeking a hearing on whether the government has obeyed a 2005 judge’s order to preserve evidence in their case.

...................

The June 2005 order, signed by Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr., of the United States District Court in Washington, required the government to “preserve and maintain all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees” at Guantánamo.

That preservation order, one of several issued in Guantánamo cases, may be relevant to the C.I.A. videotapes, Mr. Remes said. He noted that the government has said that “a senior Al Qaeda lieutenant” reported seeing one of his Guantánamo clients in Afghanistan, raising the possibility that the statements on the destroyed videotapes may be relevant to his case.

“There is never any justification for destroying materials that any reasonable person would believe might be requested in a civil or criminal proceeding,” said Mr. Remes, of the law firm Covington & Burling. “The C.I.A. had every reason to believe the videotapes would be relevant down the road.”

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/washington/11intel.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=260ed8b0c9e0df0d&ex=1355029200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

via:
http://faithfulprogressive.blogspot.com/2007/12/torture-coverup-destruction-of-cia.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. So....who was in charge of them tapes.....SOMEONE HAD to be in Charge...

and the ORDER to destroy HAD to come from ????

[PA Democrat]

2. I honestly cannot imagine how this is not obstruction of justice.

It's appalling and makes a mockery of our judicial system.