Bush Administration Rebukes Congress and Courts, Stymieing Investigations of Destroyed CIA Videotapes

by via ACLU

Sun, Dec 16, 2007 10:06AM

Saturday, December 15, 2007 : NEW YORK -- In a stunning rebuke of the constitutional system of checks and balances, the Justice Department — in a single 24-hour period — has warned a federal judge to back off of his inquiry into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes, has told Congress to delay its own investigation into the matter, and has refused to cooperate with congressional inquiries into its own role in the elimination of the videotaped evidence.

In court documents filed late Friday night, administration lawyers warned U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy that demanding information about the destroyed tapes would interfere with Justice Department and congressional investigations. In 2005, Justice Kennedy ordered the government to preserve all evidence regarding the torture, abuse and mistreatment of Guantánamo Bay detainees. Five months later, the CIA destroyed two interrogation tapes of "high-value" detainees who would eventually be transferred to Guantánamo.

In a lawsuit concerning The American Civil Liberties Union's Freedom of Information Act request, federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein also ordered the government to produce evidence of detainee treatment and abuse overseas — evidence that would include the destroyed tapes. After learning of the tapes' destruction in violation of the judge's order, the ACLU requested that Judge Hellerstein hold the government in contempt. That request is now pending.

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For more information: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/33228...

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