Lawyer urges judge to open CIA tapes inquiry

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071221/pl_nm/security_cia_dc_1

A lawyer for a group of terrorism suspects held by the United States told a court on Friday that trusting the Justice Department with an inquiry into the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes would amount to putting the fox in charge of the hen house

A Justice Department lawyer told the same hearing, however, that an independent court inquiry being requested by the suspects' lawyers could damage a joint investigation being carried out by his department and the CIA's inspector general.

David Remes, the lawyer for 11 Yemeni detainees in the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, had asked District Judge Henry Kennedy for a legal probe to determine whether the CIA's action violated a 2005 court order to preserve evidence of detainee mistreatment at the naval base in Cuba.

"Why should the court not permit the Department of Justice to do just that?" Kennedy replied at the hearing. The judge said he would issue a ruling later.