Destruction of C.I.A. Tapes Could Alter Prosecutions

[maddezmom]

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: December 9, 2007
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 —The destruction of hundreds of hours of videotaped interrogations of top operatives of Al Qaeda, including Abu Zubaydah, could complicate the prosecution of Mr. Zubaydah and others, and underscores the deep uncertainties that have plagued government officials about the interrogation program.

Officials acknowledged on Friday that the destruction of evidence like videotaped interrogations could raise questions about whether the Central Intelligence Agency was seeking to hide evidence of coercion. A review of records in military tribunals indicates that five lower-level detainees at Guantánamo were initially charged with offenses based on information that was provided by or related to Mr. Zubaydah. Lawyers for these detainees could argue that they needed the tapes to determine what, if anything, Mr. Zubaydah had said about them.

Mr. Zubaydah and another terrorism suspect, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is said to be the chief planner of the 2000 attack on the Navy destroyer Cole, are the only suspected Qaeda figures identified so far as the subjects of interrogations recorded on the destroyed tapes.

The destruction of the tapes has ignited a Congressional furor and provoked demands for a Justice Department inquiry, but it has also focused attention on the case of Mr. Zubaydah, who was captured in March 2002. As one of the first close associates of Osama bin Laden to be caught after the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Zubaydah became a test case on which the C.I.A. built and then adjusted its program of aggressive interrogations and overseas secret jails in the years that followed.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/washington/09zubaydah.html?hp


Judge questions government in al-Timimi case
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, The Associated Press

A federal judge expressed frustration last month that the government provided incorrect information about evidence in the prosecution of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and raised the possibility of ordering a new trial in another high-profile terrorism case.

At a post-trial hearing on Nov. 20 for Ali al-Timimi, a Muslim cleric from Virginia sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for soliciting treason, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she can no longer trust the CIA and other government agencies on how they represent classified evidence in terror cases.

Attorneys for al-Timimi have been seeking access to documents. They also want to depose government witnesses to determine whether the government improperly failed to disclose the existence of certain evidence.

The prosecutors have asked her to dismiss the defense request. The government has denied the allegations but has done so in secret pleadings to the judge that defense lawyers are not allowed to see. Even the lead prosecutors in the al-Timimi case have not had access to the information; they have relied on the representations of other government lawyers.


More:http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/18087/432/

[shraby]

1. I would think the judge would be obligated

to throw the case out of court because of the implication that the suspect was tortured for a confession.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. The courts will have to streamine their procedures,

skipping over the part where evidence is presented and moving directly into the sentencing phase.

[MasonJar]

3. I would certainly hope that there would be a great deal of rethinking and then retrial

of those who were possibly tortured into confessions. Those verdicts should be thrown in the dustbins.

[maddezmom]

4. U.S. Attorney Says Two CIA Interrogation Tapes Still Exist

Prosecutor in Trial of 9/11 Conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui Informs Judges That He Viewed Two Videos of al-Qaida Suspects' Interrogations Two Months Ago That Government Told Court in 2003 It Didn't Have -- And CIA Chief Said Were Destroyed



By Skeeter Sanders

A letter by a Virginia-based U.S. attorney to a federal appeals court appears to contradict CIA Director Michael Hayden's public statements on the destruction of hundreds of hours of video footage of "extreme" interrogations of suspected al-Qaida operatives by strongly indicating that at least two of the videos still exist.

Charles Rosenberg, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, wrote that his office viewed two videotapes of CIA interrogations of al-Qaida suspects as recently as September 19 and October 18 of this year -- contrary to Hayden's statement that the tapes were destroyed in 2005.

more:http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_skeeter__071209_the__skeeter_bites_r.htm