U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, who in June 2005 ordered the Bush administration to protect “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees” at Guantanamo Bay, has now ordered the administration to explain why it destroyed two videotapes of such treatment just five months later.

The judge was not persuaded by the Justice Department’s argument that his order didn’t apply because the abuse recorded on the tapes did not take place at Guantanamo.


AP:

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Bush administration to defend its decision to destroy videotapes of CIA interrogations of two al-Qaida suspects.

In a one-sentence order, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy rejected calls from the Justice Department to stay out of the matter and told lawyers to appear before him Friday at 11 a.m.

In June 2005, Kennedy ordered the administration to safeguard “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.”

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