WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US judge has declined to issue an immediate ruling on demands by inmates at Guantanamo Bay for an inquiry into the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing harsh interrogations of terror suspects.
Federal District Court Judge Henry Kennedy had summoned attorneys for the government and for "war on terror" prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to give oral arguments Friday on whether the spy agency violated his 2005 order to preserve any possible evidence of detainee mistreatment at the US prison camp in Cuba.
The scandal came to light earlier this month when Central Intelligence Agency chief Michael Hayden told staff in a letter that in 2005 the agency had destroyed tapes showing the interrogations of two Al-Qaeda suspects.
US government lawyers denied that the tapes destroyed by the CIA contained scenes of torture of suspects at the US detention camp in Guantanamo and argued that any court inquiry should wait for the outcome of the Justice Department's own probe into the matter.
The judge appeared to back the government's view, at one point asking a defense lawyer, David Remes, "Why should the court not permit the Department of Justice to do just that?"
Remes said the government could not be trusted, based on its track record.
"Plainly, the government wants only foxes guarding the henhouse," he said in his motion, according to US media reports.
The judge said after hearing arguments from both sides that he would consider the issue but did not say when he would offer a decision on a possible court inquiry.
Remes, whose clients were not depicted on the tapes, asked the court to call an inquiry into whether the government violated the court's order by destroying the videos.
"Where there is smoke there is fire," Remes said. "We have a smoking gun, as it were, with respect to the government's destruction of potentially relevant evidence."
"The revelation of the CIA's destruction (of the tapes) raises serious questions about whether the government has complied with the court's order ... and its more general obligations" to preserve evidence.
He said the disposal of the tape raised concerns about how the government has handled other evidence including in the case of one of his clients.
But government attorneys said the two detainees on the tapes were not held at Guantanamo when the videos were made.
"It is inconceivable that the destroyed tapes could have been about abuse, mistreatment or torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay," Justice Department lawyer Joseph "Jody" Hunt, representing the White House, told the court.
Hunt said the tapes were made in 2002, and that neither of the two men shown "was at Guantanamo Bay during the taping of these videos." He did not comment on why the tapes were destroyed.
In 2005, judge Kennedy had ordered the preservation of "any evidence of torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees" who were at Guantanamo Bay at the time of the order in June 2005.
The tapes reportedly show the suspects undergoing waterboarding, in which prisoners are subjected to a process of simulated drowning that is widely considered torture.
The affair has put the administration of US President George W. Bush on the defensive yet again over its treatment of "war on terror" detainees.
Bush has refused to comment on the destruction of the tapes, saying he will await the results of inquiries, but has repeatedly insisted that the US does not use torture.
Bush has also said he did not recall learning about the existence of the recordings until Hayden briefed him on the controversy two weeks ago.
Hunt said Friday that if the Washington court opened its own inquiry it would "compromise" the Justice Department's investigations. "It would be unwise," he told the court.
The New York Times this week, citing unnamed administration and intelligence officials, said four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the CIA in 2003 and 2005 on whether to keep the videotapes.
Remes did not rule out calling for testimony from top government officials in the affair, including former attorney general Alberto Gonzales.
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