Administration ‘loses’ Padilla interrogation tape.
Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was detained for four years without formal charges, much of it in solitary confinement. An independent medical expert say his repeated interrogations have made him mentally unfit for trial. Now, the judge in Padilla’s case has ordered the administration to turn over all tapes made of his interrogations, specifically a session from March 2004 while he was still held as an “enemy combatant.” But the administration says it lost the tape.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke was incredulous that anything connected to such a high-profile defendant could be lost.
“Do you understand how it might be difficult for me to understand that a tape related to this particular individual just got mislaid?” Cooke told prosecutors at a hearing last month.
Glenn Greenwald has much more.
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50 Responses to “Administration ‘loses’ Padilla interrogation tape.”
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And their dog ate their homework too.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:02 pmThis administration has no problem presenting evidence or intelligence when it supports their ideology. However, when it does not or threatens their power, the information is either classified or ‘misplaced’.
Despite the secretiveness of this administration, it is so easy to read. So sad.
BTW, the reason these tapes were ‘lost’ is likely because what is on them is so incriminating that by itself would bring the entire administration down. If it was a tape of a non-citizen it wouldn’t be as large an issue, and would only lead to the firing of a few low ranking officials. The fact that Padilla is a citizen changes all that, which shouldn’t be the case, any use of such ‘interrogation techniques’ on any human should be a one way ticket for all in the administration to an extended stay in the pokey.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:02 pmHow freakin convenient…
March 10th, 2007 at 1:04 pmThey did not lose it, they hid it so it will not be seen.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:09 pmoops a daisy!
March 10th, 2007 at 1:10 pmBut the administration says it lost the tape.
Yeah right.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:15 pmI remember well the missing minutes on the Nixon tapes during the Watergate scandal. Is Chimpy gonna get down on his knees with Rove and cry while praying for his salvation, too? He’s, The Decider!
March 10th, 2007 at 1:17 pmAnd we have the audacity to point our finger at other out-of-control regimes.
Welcome to AmeriKa, folks.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:19 pmIf the tape has full frontal male nudity, with torture on it, then Bush has it in the Oval Office. Without Jeff Gannon around, Dubya needs porn.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:24 pmThis case needs a whistle blower. I’m sure thay have been destroying evidence since they “clenched” over the first Hamdan ruling.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:50 pmJay- What’s with the “suggestions”, today? Feeling frisky?
March 10th, 2007 at 1:51 pmLose the tape. Right. If this is true some people need to be fired for gross incompetence. If this is not true the same people need to be arrested, tried and convicted for obstructing justice. Actually if I were a right wing nutcase, I would have the people who lost the tape tried and hanged for being part of a terrorist conspiracy and losing valuable evidence.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:52 pmLost? Yeah, right.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:55 pmI just wanna see “who” is doing “what” to “whom”. I can imagine Rumsfeld and Rove in leather and mesh…
March 10th, 2007 at 1:56 pm(Excuse me, while I throw-up… )
Coming soon to a theatre near you: Dude, Where’s My Tape?
March 10th, 2007 at 2:03 pm“Administration ‘loses’ Padilla interrogation tape.”
When you can’t rewrite history, you simply lose it. When you can’t influence US attorneys, you fire them. When you don’t like a new law, you append a signing statement. When you can’t win an election, you rig the machines.
Makes sense to me.
March 10th, 2007 at 2:07 pm“Tape? What tape? Oh, that tape! Oh, we…ah…we couldn’t find it. No, sir, we don’t know where it could possibly be. No, seriously…we’ve looked everywhere, as hard as we possibly can. It looks like it might have gotten lost…yeah…that’s the ticket!”
Shades of George Orwell’s infamous “memory hole” from “1984…
March 10th, 2007 at 2:34 pmWhy do the trolls never come out when these types of articles show up? Is it because they haven’t had their talking points yet from Pudge Boy Rover and Darth Cheney?
March 10th, 2007 at 2:45 pmHow can it be anything but standard op for the WH cabal.Be contemptuous to the Rule of law.
March 10th, 2007 at 2:47 pmRemember folks the man these haters of America take their orders from thinks he is not bound by any law.Won’t surprise me one bit if he thinks he must be Prez for life of America.
… I have the tape…
March 10th, 2007 at 2:47 pmThe administration is looking for a Padilla stand in..They plan to find the ( tape) sometime in 2008 before the election..It will be released along with more edited, new, revised tapes of BenLauden…Look for it’s listing’s on your local tv guides around October 15, 2008…Blessings
March 10th, 2007 at 2:55 pmAh, remember when the Republicans lost their minds over this:
“Hillary Clinton lost her Rose Law Firm notes!”
-GSD
March 10th, 2007 at 2:56 pmComment by nineteen84 — March 10, 2007 @ 2:07 pm
And when you can’t impeach an administration which violates the rule of law, you create Big Brother.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:03 pmDo you realize it is entirely possible that the judge may dismiss all charges due to prosecutorial misconduct?
March 10th, 2007 at 3:06 pmIt wasn’t lost they have no case and this is their way out. They have kept this innocent man in jail and tortured him to the point he is now brain dead so they have no use for him anymore. This is how the Bush Administration used innocent people for the fake war. America is now the country that jails innocent people, torture them or kill them and then have lawyers that say Bummer.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:14 pmPadilla is an American CITIZEN. What they have done to him they could do to every single one of us.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:24 pmThey “lost the tape” accidentally on purpose. Does the Bush administration have good intentions? Sure they do and it’s safe to let a fox guard the chicken house.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:27 pmAnd Ronald Reagan was a great President but during Iran Contra hearings he couldn’t remember to how many questions. Over 100 times I think.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:50 pmI guess since Reagan and Bush Sr. got away with everything these guys have always figured they will too.
The ordinary remedy in court would be to dismiss all charges against Padilla, and that is exactly what the administration wants, isn’t it? Just dismiss the charges, and pretend all their illegal, unconstitutional activity never happened. I sincerely hope they will not get off that easily.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:52 pmWhy do the trolls never come out when these types of articles show up? Is it because they haven’t had their talking points yet from Pudge Boy Rover and Darth Cheney?
Comment by upside00
On the plus side things are going so badly for them maybe they’ll disappear entirely.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:53 pmCongress has the exclusive right under the Constitution to impeach and try the president and vice president for “high crimes and misdemeanors”. Punishment is limited to removal from office. The Constitution does not, however, limit liability for breach of state or federal laws. These crimes simply have to be taken up in the appropriate courts. Karl Rove’s retirement project will be to keep prosecutors from finding enough to act.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:03 pmThe ordinary remedy in court would be to dismiss all charges against Padilla, and that is exactly what the administration wants, isn’t it? — chartreuse dog
*************************************************
Actually, I would be inclined to dispute that — I would be inclined to argue that what the administration not only wants but needs is for Padilla to be convicted of something, anything. A dismissal of the charges against Padilla would be tantamount to admitting that Padilla is not accused of having committed any crime — which would mean that the US government had no grounds for detaining him for over two years without access to legal counsel and allegedly subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of his Constitutional rights as a US citizen. I find it almost impossible to believe (or at least, I certainly don’t want to believe) that the American people have fallen so far and become so utterly apathetic and complacent that the US government would be allowed to sweep their treatment of Padilla under the rug without some sort of legal and/or political hue and cry. They cannot afford to let Padilla out of their clutches at this point — because my feeling is that if he were ever to get his freedom, his case could potentially break the administration wide open (unless they bribed him to keep his mouth shut).
March 10th, 2007 at 4:25 pm20… I have the tape…
Comment by Barbara Bush
And may I say Babs that I like you so much better here than I did when you were, and I use the term loosely, First Lady.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:26 pmAs the church lady used to say “HOW CONVENIENT!”
Lying bastards.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:41 pmBluestocking, #32, I agree that the administration would like to have been able to convict Padilla of something, but I think it’s worth it to them to forego that satisfaction if we will allow their activities to be swept under the rug. In Padilla’s shoes, I would be very concerned about a freak accident.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:43 pmThis is really such a bummer ,now we’ll have to torture him all over again !
March 10th, 2007 at 5:02 pm“A Convenient Lie”
March 10th, 2007 at 6:12 pmDo you realize it is entirely possible that the judge may dismiss all charges due to prosecutorial misconduct?
Comment by Briseadh na Faire — March 10, 2007 @ 3:06 pm
And the prosecutors will be immune from criminal or civil punishment. That’s not a balanced system and it’s one of the reasons I consider the entire legal system corrupt from top to bottom and back up to the top again!!
Judges are corrupt, lawyers are corrupt, law makers are corrupt. There is no rule of law left in the USA. If Abu Gonzales is the AG then I’m not obeying the law — just like him!!
March 10th, 2007 at 6:29 pmMuch in the SAME WAY the VA lost all the patients’ records on the laptop computer–THROUGH SHEER STUPID CARELESSNESS and FOOLISH MENDACITY!!!!! WHAT A BUNCH OF F*CK-UPS–TRULY THE GANG THAT COULDN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT NOR HIT THE SIDE OF A BARN–IF THEY WERE WILLIAM TELL, HE WOULDN’T HAVE A LIVE SON AFTER THEY GOT THROUGH FUMBLING AND STUMBLING OVER THEIR OWN FEET!!!!!
March 10th, 2007 at 6:35 pmCouldn’t they be satisfied with simply losing sixteen minutes? The ones in which they were speaking in German while wearing swastikas (I have seen those old brownshirt photos and I swear I have seen Karl Rove in them…multiple times.
March 10th, 2007 at 7:48 pmLost the damn tape.Damn the damn luck.That was the tape where Padilla confessed to treasonous acts and everything. Damn, how we gonna convict him now. Damn! Maybe the judge will let us do a re-enactment.Yeah-let’s ask her! Padilla can’t object cause he don’t have no stinkin’ rights anyway.Riiiiggghhtt.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:21 pmJust a thought-has anybody checked to see if the tape was posted on You Tube?
March 10th, 2007 at 8:26 pmI’m surprised they haven’t lost Padilla yet. I
March 10th, 2007 at 10:18 pmI’m surprised they haven’t lost Padilla yet. I
Comment by Innocent Bystander
No kidding. He is rather inconvenient to them.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:31 pmthe tape was rented by Bush for 24 hours ( new release ) and while he was busy rewinding and fast forwarding, jacking off on the torture scenes the VCR screwed the tape and the NSA didnt have another copy
March 11th, 2007 at 12:28 am[…] Administration ‘loses’ Padilla interrogation tape. […]
March 11th, 2007 at 12:34 amIsn’t this like the lost fbi files in the you know who white house?
March 11th, 2007 at 1:08 amHow about the Rose Law Firm Files that Mrs. Bill Clinton couldn’t seem to find?
March 11th, 2007 at 1:10 amHow about the Rose Law Firm Files that Mrs. Bill Clinton couldn’t seem to find?
Comment by beefeater
Not even an issue, idiot stick.
March 11th, 2007 at 11:32 amHow convenient.
March 12th, 2007 at 8:50 am