Very bad move. The destruction of the "harsh interrogation" tapes by the CIA is setting up some real problems for the administration and (what else is new!) the trouble is potentially widespread.
... Nearly four months after the disclosure that the tapes were destroyed, the list of legal entanglements for the C.I.A., the Defense Department and other agencies is only growing longer. In addition to criminal and Congressional investigations of the tapes’ destruction, the government is fighting off challenges in several major terrorism cases and a raft of prisoners’ legal claims that it may have destroyed evidence.
Perhaps this was the subject of the "off the record" comments made by CIA director, Michael Hayden,at a dinner he hosted last night for members of the press. Hayden is now under pressure with respect to his statements about tape destruction -- deliberate destruction of evidence which is highly relevant to several court cases.
The destruction of tapes has also prompted challenges from lawyers for Zacharias Moussaoui, the convicted Qaeda operative who had unsuccessfully sought testimony at his trial from Abu Zubaydah, one of the two Qaeda suspects whose interrogation videotapes were destroyed in November 2005. At that time, a defense motion seeking records of Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation was pending before a federal court in Virginia.
This motion in the Moussaoui case, among other legal challenges, has raised questions about a statement in December by the C.I.A. director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, that he understood the tapes were destroyed only after it was determined that they were “not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries."
A C.I.A. spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, said General Hayden “certainly stands by his statement.”
Apparently several government agencies were involved in a cover up. They still may get away with torture.
Plans for the possible prosecution of another prisoner, Ali al-Marri, who has been held since 2003 in a naval brig in Charleston, S.C., could be in jeopardy after the Pentagon recently revealed that it had destroyed some tapes of Mr. Marri’s interrogation. Other tapes showing rough treatment of Mr. Marri, which were discovered in a Pentagon review ordered after the C.I.A. revelations and have been preserved, could prove embarrassing if presented at his trial. ...
...The remaining tapes of Mr. Marri, the prisoner at the Charleston brig who is challenging his indefinite detention, could create legal headaches for Justice Department lawyers should they someday bring him to trial.
During any future trial, Mr. Marri’s lawyers could show a jury interrogation tapes showing that he had been treated roughly. In addition, they could exploit the Pentagon’s admission that it has destroyed some tapes of Mr. Marri’s interrogation to make the case that the government withheld evidence from the defense.
Despite all the legal complications, those in the C.I.A. who got rid of the videotapes may have achieved one of their presumed goals: preventing a torture prosecution, said Deborah Colson, a senior associate at Human Rights First.
“It may be impossible to reconstruct any criminal conduct that was caught on the tapes,” Ms. Colson said.
