Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 18, 2008
Pg. 9
By Mark Mazzetti
WASHINGTON — A records search by the Central Intelligence Agency has found no evidence that the agency violated a judge’s order when, in 2005, it destroyed videotapes that showed harsh interrogations, the C.I.A. said in a court declaration this week.
The agency destroyed interrogation videotapes in November 2005, months after a federal judge issued an order for the government to preserve all evidence relevant to the trial of Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, a Yemeni challenging his detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
But in a court filing on Wednesday, Robert L. Deitz, a top agency official, said that a search of several thousand pages of documents had found no evidence indicating “intentional, accidental, or negligent destruction of records” falling under that order.
In a separate filing, an official from the C.I.A inspector general’s office told the court that no records from the agency’s watchdog office were destroyed that might have had an impact on Mr. Abdullah’s case.
The court filings do not explain how the C.I.A. reached its conclusion, or by what standard it judged whether documents were covered by the order.
The detainees shown on the destroyed tapes are Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
John H. Durham, a federal prosecutor, is reviewing whether officials violated any of 17 court orders — including the one in Mr. Abdullah’s case — by concealing the existence of the tapes or approving their destruction.
In his court filing, Mr. Deitz said that the records review was still incomplete.
“Many of the individuals at C.I.A. who would normally be involved in a search for any records evidencing destruction or spoliation are, as I understand it, potential witnesses in the matter under investigation by Mr. Durham,” he wrote.
April 18, 2008
Pg. 9
By Mark Mazzetti
WASHINGTON — A records search by the Central Intelligence Agency has found no evidence that the agency violated a judge’s order when, in 2005, it destroyed videotapes that showed harsh interrogations, the C.I.A. said in a court declaration this week.
The agency destroyed interrogation videotapes in November 2005, months after a federal judge issued an order for the government to preserve all evidence relevant to the trial of Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, a Yemeni challenging his detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
But in a court filing on Wednesday, Robert L. Deitz, a top agency official, said that a search of several thousand pages of documents had found no evidence indicating “intentional, accidental, or negligent destruction of records” falling under that order.
In a separate filing, an official from the C.I.A inspector general’s office told the court that no records from the agency’s watchdog office were destroyed that might have had an impact on Mr. Abdullah’s case.
The court filings do not explain how the C.I.A. reached its conclusion, or by what standard it judged whether documents were covered by the order.
The detainees shown on the destroyed tapes are Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
John H. Durham, a federal prosecutor, is reviewing whether officials violated any of 17 court orders — including the one in Mr. Abdullah’s case — by concealing the existence of the tapes or approving their destruction.
In his court filing, Mr. Deitz said that the records review was still incomplete.
“Many of the individuals at C.I.A. who would normally be involved in a search for any records evidencing destruction or spoliation are, as I understand it, potential witnesses in the matter under investigation by Mr. Durham,” he wrote.