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Breaking: Court Won't Probe Destruction of CIA Tapes
One less thing for the administration to worry about. From the AP:
A federal judge refused on Wednesday to delve into the destruction of CIA interrogation videos, saying there was no evidence the Bush administration violated a court order and the Justice Department deserved time to conduct its own investigation.
Update: It looks like the long-held secrecy of the black sites and the existence of the video tapes may have saved the administration here. From Judge Henry Kennedy's decision (read it here):
The 2005 Order prohibits [the administration] from destroying evidence regarding any torture, mistreatment, or abuse of detainees that occurred at Guantánamo Bay. Petitioners do not assert that the destroyed tapes depict interrogations that occurred at Guantánamo Bay and respondents have represented to the court that the interrogations depicted on the tapes did not occur there. To the contrary, the videotapes were recorded in their entirety in 2002 before either of the suspected Al Quaeda operatives shown on the tapes had been at Guantánamo Bay.... Therefore, petitioners’ motion will be denied.
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I am losing confidence in our system -I am sure I am not the only one either.
January 9, 2008 6:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Back in the USSR! Stick a fork in America it is done!
It was nice while it lasted. I just hope I don't get sent the Gullag.
January 9, 2008 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Following the letter of the law has done a lot more harm than good recently.
I know that's how it has to work for the system to even approach fairness, but I don't think that some legislative and legal decisions have twigged to the infinite deviousness of the legal minds in the Busheney Administration. But which but the most devious of minds could anticipate how good-faith legal precedents would be abused by these people?
I seem never to cease to be amazed and appalled.
January 9, 2008 6:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
[snark] Hitler's Lawyer to the Nuremberg Tribunal
"Comrades, you asked for the _right_ records, but from from the _wrong_ concentration camp. You didn't ask for Aushwitz, you only indirectly mentioned Dachau. Thus, because you didn't ask for the right records about the Holocaust, this "proves' there was no Holocaust, and it remains a state secret. You have no case. The SS will continue its investigation of me."
[/snark]
January 9, 2008 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are these the lessons learned:
- Why weren't _all_ records ordered to be retained?
- Why weren't _non-GTMO_ records part of the plaintiff request for preservation?
- Geneva is a single treaty with a single standard: No abuse is permitted. Is someone asking us to believe that CIA abuse in Eastern Europe was "different" than abuse at GTMO; and that tapes of that _same_ abuse at GTMO are in a different class that tapes of abuse in Eastern Europe?
January 9, 2008 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
It doesn't look like this is the end of the court-legal interest into the CIA tape destruction; nor with CCR's interest in looking at the tape, or getting an answer. CCR has other cases on the same subject [See link]
CCR was representing Majid Khan; the Kennedy ruling appears to be a different plaintiff, Abdah? [Maybe it's the same one?] The apparent intent of the CCR action was to explore _worldwide_ abuse against POWs. CCR's Ratner [at link] said "CCR has been at the forefront of litigation seeking to define the status of prisoners at Guantanamo _and_ at secret military prisons _across the world_", not just GTMO.
Would be interesting to hear discussion on what else is expected to go before the courts on this CIA tape destruction, and what other CCR efforts there will be other than those listed at the link, or at this TPMM thread.
January 9, 2008 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay - about now is when we need several of our erstwhile Democratic Leaders to stand up and say this is wrong & we need some kind of legislative cure for this cryto fascist twisting of our American judicial system . That is of course assuming we have any real Leadership left - Congresswoman Harmon , Senator Rockefeller ,hey why can't we get our canidates to address this Senators Obama / Clinton - Or maybe some one over there in Bloomberg's shop could speak out ..paging Senator Hagel - where have all our lEADERS GONE ?
Maybe we do need a third party -with these complicit Vichy /Quisling Democratic lEADERS we've got now - Madam Speaker you are compromised & complicit please step down..
Anyone got Cindy Sheehan contribution address- enough is enough ..
January 9, 2008 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
The system takes care of its own. One crook props up another.
What a horrific nightmare this nation has become.
January 9, 2008 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do we not have any smart lawyers on our side? Are all the questions so stupid? I knew this would happen, because they didn't file the right case. Or is it you go with case you have and all the other cases sit there and rot? Criminees.
January 9, 2008 10:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Public accountability kind of demands they keep digging and find out what the hell really went on, here, probably firing a bunch of people, and putting it in writing that it'll never happen again...until the next time someone comes along with 'signing statements' or whatever.
http://www.impeachbush.org
January 10, 2008 4:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mark - it's like a nightmarish game of whack-a-mole, except for moles we have a beast made of poisonous tentacles. Other than that, nobody knows what it looks like.
Kind of like the Cloverfield monster, actually.
January 10, 2008 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
The executive branch doesn't agree with me, conclusion -their the devil
The judicial branch doesn't agree with me that the executive branch is the devil, conclusion- they are corrupt
The legislative branch (which have written few if any meaningful laws lately) doesn't want to subvert the powers of the other 2 branches so that my view will prevail, conclusion- the representative government doesn't work right, let me rule from the blog
or
get out their vote for a Presidential canidate like Anonymous or moondancer
January 10, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The crime is not the doing, it's the getting caught. So, erasing tapes to cover up the crime is not a crime, cuz they didn't get caught doing the crime, so doing the crime was not a crime cuz there's no evidence of it.
nomotears: Your post makes no sense: "their" means belongs to them; "they're" means they are; and "there" means a place that's not here. Just FYI - hope this was helpful...
January 10, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink