NEW YORK — A federal judge said Thursday that the CIA appeared to have violated a court order by failing to disclose that it had videotaped two al-Qaeda suspects undergoing a harsh interrogation at an overseas prison.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein chided the CIA over its handling of the tapes, which were destroyed in 2005, and said he would consider exploring ways of re-creating their content — including requiring CIA officials who viewed them to reveal what they contained. “I know that we all are disappointed . . . What to do about it is another issue,” Hellerstein said. “It’s quite possible that the destruction was not absolute.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has asked Hellerstein to find the CIA in contempt of court for failing to preserve the tapes.
ACLU lawyers said the tapes should have been protected by an order Hellerstein issued in 2005 requiring the intelligence service to produce or identify a broad volume of records regarding its treatment of captives.
