Administration: Destroying CIA tapes didn't violate order

[ProSense]

Administration: Destroying CIA tapes didn't violate order

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration argued Friday that the CIA's destruction of videotapes that showed the interrogations of two al Qaeda suspects did not violate a court order because the suspects were not at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Kennedy, who had ordered the hearing earlier this week, said he will consider the government's arguments. The hearing lasted about an hour.

Kennedy had issued a court order in June 2005 that said "all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay" must be preserved.

The attorneys also argued Friday in federal court that it would be problematic for the court to conduct its own investigation in public while the Department of Justice investigates the destruction of the tapes.

In an emergency request filed Monday, lawyers for a group of prisoners held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay urged the judge to step in now.

They accused the White House of blocking outside inquiry into the tapes and trying to ensure that only federal agencies implicated in the destruction would carry out an internal inquiry.

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I thought Bush and no one in his admin knew anything?

Does anyone actually believe this story? (on destroyed CIA tapes)

Special prosecutor time

[helderheid]

1. K&R

[LynnTheDem]

2. Now who didn't know that excuse was coming? See, torture is ok, see,

as long as we do it in places where we haven't actually been told not to do it. See.


Torture R Usa

[spanone]

3. if all americans twisted the law the way bu$hco does, we wouldn't exist

i think that will be determined by someone other than the whitehouse

[Vickers]

4. "because the suspects were not at Guantanamo Bay"

Ah, a technicality! :patriot:

[EFerrari]

6. But notice, the language is "regarding" the people at Gitmo,

not "of" the people at Gitmo. So, destroying evidence that bears on the case could be construed as a violation of the order because the order doesn't look limited to evidence directly originating at Gitmo.

There's wiggle room. Now it depends on how much spine this judge has. imho

[killbotfactory]

5. How far can these nazi's go before someone steps up to the plate and arrests them?

Politics shouldn't give you cover to torture people until they are completely insane and then illegally destroy the evidence.

[atreides1]

9. They Can Go As Far As They Want To

Because there is no entity with the courage to stop them! Congress is full of enablers on both sides of the aisle, the Supreme Court is filled with Bush sycophants, and I wouldn't trust Mucasey to investigate a 6 year old who steals a Snickers bar, without trying to cover it up.

So just like there 1930's predecessors these "Nazi's" will go as far as they want to!!!!!

[tbyg52]

7. More whack-a-mole

Everything they do is OK unless you specify that they can't down to the centimeter and second. And then they still try to wiggle out of it.

[kentuck]

8. Well, I guess that settles it then...

Would they lie?

[Bitwit1234]

10. How about deleting emails and shredding government records

that's defying a LAW. But they did it and won't cooperate with re-constructing them.

[ProSense]

11. US government denies CIA tapes showed torture

US government denies CIA tapes showed torture

by Roland Lloyd Parry

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US government lawyers flatly denied Friday that videotapes destroyed by the CIA contained any scenes of the torture of Guantanamo Bay terror suspects, in a keenly watched court hearing here.

"It is inconceivable that the destroyed tapes could have been about abuse, mistreatment or torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay," lawyer Jody Hunt, representing the White House, told the court.

US District Court Judge Henry Kennedy had summoned attorneys for the government and for "war on terror" prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to give oral arguments on whether the agency violated his 2005 order to preserve any possible evidence of detainee mistreatment at the US prison camp in Cuba.

The scandal came to light earlier this month when CIA chief Michael Hayden told staff in a letter that in 2005 the agency had destroyed tapes showing the interrogations of two Al-Qaeda suspects.

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Evolution of a lie!