WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 Court papers released Wednesday indicate that a U.S. judge was seeking information about a detainee depicted in CIA tapes when the tapes were destroyed.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who presided over the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, was not told that the CIA had videotaped questioning of Abu Zubaydah. But the documents, which were formerly classified, suggest that she was trying to get more information on Zubaydah's interrogation in late November 2005, The New York Times reported.
The CIA destroyed the tapes of two interrogations, including Zubaydah's, that month. CIA Director Michael Hayden said last year that the tapes by that time weren't relevant to any trials.
In a statement to CIA employees in December, Hayden said the tape destruction came "only after it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries -- including the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui."
In 2005, the CIA provided Brinkema with summaries of Zubaydah's interrogation and other documents without telling her about the videotape, the Times' article said.
Copyright 2008 by UPI
