Co-defendant in Padilla case asks judge for access to CIA tapes

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

MIAMI - The CIA videotape destruction debate has surfaced in the Jose Padilla terrorism case, with one of his co-defendants asking a judge to order the disclosure of any surviving recordings that might bear on how Padilla was recruited for al-Qaida.

The motion filed Wednesday by attorneys for Adham Amin Hassoun focuses on whether the CIA videotaped any interrogations of an al-Qaida figure known as Uways, who gave the U.S. statements on how Padilla was contacted in Egypt about attending an al-Qaida training camp.

``If one or more recordings exist, Hassoun is entitled to the entirety of those recordings so as to be able to hear Uways describe the information in his own words,'' attorneys Ken Swartz and Jeanne Baker said in court papers.


They also want U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke more broadly to order disclosure of any other recordings of al-Qaida interrogations indicating how Padilla was recruited. Hassoun was accused of being that recruiter in an indictment that led to the convictions of Hassoun, Padilla and a third man on terrorism-related charges.



Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-1213padilla,0,4680801.story?track=rss

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The Padilla Tapes
Why are destroyed CIA tapes so important?
Posted December 13th, 2007 by ralphlopez
On May 8th, 2002, the government seized an American citizen, Jose Padilla, on American soil on allegations, but not formal charges, of terrorism. George Bush ordered the military to take custody of Padilla as an "enemy combatant" in the June 9, 2002 Presidential Order to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, which said:

"I, George W. Bush, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces, hereby determine for the United States of America that...Jose Padilla, who is under the control of the Department of Justice and who is a U.S. citizen, is, and at the time he entered the United States in May 2002 was, an enemy combatant...you are directed to receive Mr. Padilla from the Department of Justice and to detain him as an enemy combatant. "

Dry words, but perhaps the most important since the founding of the Republic. In military detention, Padilla was made to sleep on a metal cot, subjected to hooding, stress positions, assaults, threats of imminent execution, and the administration of “truth serums,” according to his lawyer. Padilla was not even allowed a lawyer until two years after his arrest. When the government released him to the civilian courts 3-and-a-half years later, Padilla was docile, and did little to assist in his own defense.

more:http://www.bostonnow.com/blogs/ralphlopez/2007/12/13/the-padilla-tapes

[maddezmom]

1. from March 10,2007: What happened to the Padilla interrogation videos?

This is an infinitely bigger story than the media, thus far, seems to realize. In the Jose Padilla criminal trial, the judge -- Bush-appointee and former federal prosecutor Marcia Cooke, who has a reputation for extreme objectivity -- has ordered the Bush administration to turn over all tapes made of its interrogations of Padilla, as part of Padilla's motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that he was, in essence, tortured while being held incommunicado for 3 1/2 years. In particular, Padilla's lawyers are most interested in the last interrogation session to which he was subjected -- in March, 2004 -- while still held as an "enemy combatant."

Ten days ago, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball reported that the administration had produced all of the DVDs it claimed it possessed, but the March, 2004 interrogation video was not among them. The government began claiming that the video "mysteriously disappeared." Bush administration lawyers simply insist that they are "no longer able to locate the DVD."

Associated Press now furthers the story by reporting that Bush lawyers seem to have committed themselves to the position that the video will not be found: "'I don't know what happened to it,' Pentagon attorney James Schmidli said during a recent court hearing." Judge Cooke is reacting exactly how she should -- with utter disbelief in the veracity of this claim:


more: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/03/10/padilla/index.html

[micraphone]

2. Inept Govt, inept prosecution

(sound of gavel slamming)

Case dismissed!

[gratuitous]

3. Another botched prosecution

Of course, there's an open question as to whether Padilla was anything other than a run-of-the-mill schmo, but with Lil Boots making judicial determinations (isn't he part of the Executive branch?) about his status, it's apparent that he's every bit as competent as a judge as he's been as president.