Federal judge hesitant to investigate CIA tapes' destruction

WASHINGTON — A federal judge appeared reluctant Friday to investigate the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, saying the Justice Department is conducting its own inquiry.

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy heard arguments on whether he should hold a hearing on the CIA's destruction of the videotapes in November 2005. The destruction occurred five months after Kennedy ordered the government to preserve "all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees now" at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The Bush administration asked Kennedy to back off while it investigates.

"Why should the court not permit the Department of Justice to do just that?" Kennedy asked.

Lawyers for several Yemeni prisoners at Guantánamo told the judge he should investigate because of recent disclosures by the CIA that it had made videotapes of its interrogations of suspected senior al-Qaida leaders Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 2002 and destroyed them three years later. Critics suspect the tapes contained evidence of waterboarding, which international human-rights groups have denounced as torture.

David Remes, a lawyer for the Yemeni men, told Kennedy the CIA's disclosures suggest the agency might have violated the court order because it has refused to comment on whether Zubaydah and al-Nashiri were being secretly held at Guantánamo when he issued it.

Remes also said the CIA disclosure and other information suggest the U.S. government might have destroyed other evidence of torture or improper treatment of detainees at Guantánamo.

Lawyer Joseph "Jody" Hunt, representing the White House, told the judge the tapes destroyed by the CIA had no bearing on the case of the Yemeni men. The videotaped interrogations of Zubaydah and al-Nashiri were made before either of the men were taken to the detention facility in Cuba, Hunt said.

Hunt also asked the judge to refrain from conducting his own investigation because it could influence the inquiry under way by the Justice Department and CIA inspector general. That probe will look specifically at the issue of whether the government violated any court orders, including Kennedy's, Hunt said.

If the Justice Department inquiry concludes Kennedy's order was violated, it would notify the judge directly, Hunt said.

Material from The Washington Post and The Associated Press is included in this report.