Bush Administration Destroyed Tapes as Judge Sought Interrogation Data

[kpete]

C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes as Judge Sought Interrogation Data

By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE
Published: February 7, 2008

WASHINGTON — At the time that the Central Intelligence Agency destroyed videotapes of the interrogations of operatives of Al Qaeda, a federal judge was still seeking information from Bush administration lawyers about the interrogation of one of those operatives, Abu Zubaydah, according to court documents made public on Wednesday.

The court documents, filed in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, appear to contradict a statement last December by Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, that when the tapes were destroyed in November 2005 they had no relevance to any court proceeding, including Mr. Moussaoui’s criminal trial.

It was already known that the judge in the case, Leonie M. Brinkema, had not been told about the existence or destruction of the videos. But the newly disclosed court documents, which had been classified as secret, showed the judge had still been actively seeking information about Mr. Zubaydah’s interrogation as late as Nov. 29, 2005.

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

One of the documents, a motion filed by Mr. Moussaoui’s lawyers to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, cites several instances in 2005, including one after the videotapes were apparently destroyed, when government lawyers produced documents to the court that came from the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/washington/07intel.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[L. Coyote]

1. Poisoning the entire tree! Evidence rules may require reconsideration of various cases.

Bushco incompetence may have poisoned the entire tree of "terror" prosecutions. Destroying the evidence of illegally obtaining evidence by torture just compounds the problem in other cases. Rather than "fixing" them by illegal means, they may be dismissed now! There are legal presumptions that give an advantage to the opponent of a litigant that destroys evidence, and the presumption is in favor of the person denied the evidence.

When it is a "fix" it is NOT justice! Or, are we giving up that right too now?

[Supersedeas]

2. apparently Candor to the Tribunal is not a priority to the former Judge and new AG

[ladjf]

3. Why not? Who's to stop them or punish them? There is basically

no rule of law in our government.The administration is a swashbuckling pack of thugs.

[KansDem]

4. Yet, the Bush Administration "captures" the video of boys training to be "insurgents"

From DU thread In Seized Video, Boys Train to Fight in Iraq, U.S. Says

Source: NYT

BAGHDAD — The children in black — T-shirts, trousers and face masks — hoist AK-47s and pistols and rush toward an apparently unarmed man on a bicycle. In an instant they have surrounded him, shouting in the high voices of boys who are not yet men, “Put your hands behind your back.”

The man hesitates, looking confused. He is wearing a thin, untucked button-down shirt and looks vulnerable before the boys. They wave their guns, menacingly. As the video segment ends, he is kneeling on the dirt road as the boys close in and wave their guns at him.

The scene is from a video captured by the American military in December near Khan Bani Saad, a town in Diyala, a turbulent province northeast of Baghdad. The video, shown Wednesday by the military at a news conference, is believed to be part of a propaganda tape made by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown extremist group that American intelligence officials say has foreign leadership.

While this is not the first time that the military has found images of children in the insurgent group’s tapes and photos, the video has the largest volume of raw images that American forces have come across, a military spokesman said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/world/middleeast/07ir...

Yet, the tapes of Bush torturing humans are "destroyed?"

[wildbilln864]

5. recommended and an.......

appropriate kick! :hi:

[paparush]

6. K & R! eom

[Quantess]

7. How responsible, ethical, and law abiding!