Bush administration faces court hearing Friday

Het beleid van Bush ziet de Vrijdag van de hofhoorzitting in de band-vernietiging van de CIA geschil onder ogen

Het beleid van Bush heeft zijn positie duidelijk in het wettelijke indienen gemaakt en nu een kans geworden om het aan een rechter in open hof te zeggen: greep weg bij het onderzoeken over de vernietiging van CIA- videobanden die veronderstelde terroristen toonde die worden ondervraagd.

De V.S. De Rechter Henry H. van het district. Kennedy gaf opdracht tot de hoorzittingsVrijdag over het bezwaar van de Afdeling van de Rechtvaardigheid nadat de advocaten vragen over de mogelijkheid stelden dat ander bewijsmateriaal ook zou kunnen vernietigd te zijn.

Kennedy is considering whether to delve into the matter and, if so, how deeply.

The hearing marks the first time administration lawyers were to speak in public and under oath about the matter since the CIA disclosed this month it destroyed the tapes of officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects.

Kennedy is presiding over a lawsuit by Guantanamo Bay prisoners who are challenging their detention. The judge had ordered the government not to destroy any evidence of mistreatment or abuse at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Because the suspects — Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri — were being held overseas in secret CIA prisons, however, the government contends they are not covered by the order.

The tapes could be covered by a more general rule that prohibits the destruction of any evidence that could be relevant to a case. For example, if the tapes showed Zubaydah discussing any of the detainees in Kennedy’s case, their destruction could have been prohibited.

Lawyers for both sides have filed classified documents regarding the tapes. That means there is a good chance Kennedy already knows whether the videos are relevant to his case.

If the judge believes the CIA destroyed the tapes to keep them from being used in court, he could side with the detainees’ lawyers and order the government to disclose all the evidence it has collected, including any other evidence in addition to the tapes that has been destroyed.

He could order government officials to testify in court about the tapes, which were created in 2002 and destroyed in 2005.

The government has strongly urged against this move on the ground that it would disrupt a joint Justice Department-CIA investigation into the tapes. In court documents, acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey S. Bucholtz worried that Kennedy might order testimony that “could potentially complicate the ongoing efforts to arrive at a full factual understanding of the matter.”

A congressional investigation is under way, too. The CIA invited investigators from the House of Representatives intelligence committee to the agency’s headquarters just outside Washington on Thursday to begin reviewing documents and records relating to the videotapes.

Kennedy could side with the Justice Department and agree that no usable evidence exists the government acted improperly and, therefore, no reason to order anything else. He could say he lacks the authority to act because the videotapes were not related to his case.

Kennedy was a federal prosecutor in the early 1970s during the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, both Republicans, until he was named a federal magistrate judge in 1976. Democratic President Jimmy Carter appointed him to be a judge in the District of Columbia’s courts, and former President Bill Clinton, another Democrat, named him to the federal bench.

The Associated Press

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