“It Boggles The Mind”There are good days in court, and there are bad days in court. From The New York Times:
A federal judge said Thursday that he was âdisappointedâ about how investigators from the Central Intelligence Agency handled videotapes documenting the harsh interrogation of Al Qaeda detainees, and that he was considering questioning agency officials who watched the tapes about why they made no record of them in their files.
The judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said from the bench that he was stunned that the C.I.A. investigators had not kept records about the tapes, which were destroyed in 2005, even though the tapes were an important part of an internal C.I.A. review into interrogation methods.
âIâm asked to believe that actual motion pictures, videotapes, of the relationship between interrogators and prisoners were of so little valueâ that was no record of them was kept in C.I.A. investigative files, Judge Hellerstein said during a hearing over a freedom of information request involving the tapes.
âI just canât accept it. If it came up in an ordinary case, it would not be credible,â the judge said, adding, âIt boggles the mind.â
Actually things could have gone worse. The judge denied the ACLU’s request to hold the CIA in contempt. But apparently he’s not content to let the matter drop.
