The Scum at the Top
Commentary on the Rats in Washington
Last Padilla interrogation tape missing
StarTribune
Page A1
© March 10, 2007
MIAMI - A videotape showing Pentagon officials' final interrogation of Al-Qaida suspect Jose Padilla is missing.
The tape is classified, but Padilla's attorneys said they believe something happened during that interrogation that could explain why Padilla does not trust them and suspects they are government agents.
Padilla attorney Anthony Natale said in court papers that the March 2, 2004, interrogation at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., could contain information the government conveyed to Padilla that "directly impacts upon his relationship with his attorneys."
Prosecutors and the Pentagon have said they cannot find the tape despite an intensive search.
Authorities made 88 video recordings of Padilla being interrogated during the 3½ years he was held in the brig as an "enemy combatant," officials said.
Eighty-seven tapes have been given to the defense, leaving only the last session unaccounted for.
"I don't know what happened to it," Pentagon attorney James Schmidli said during a recent court hearing.
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.
Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen, is scheduled to stand trial April 16 along with two co-defendants on charges of being part of a North American terror support cell.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
©2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
The Scum at the Top - Home
E-mail: dwagner2@isd.net
©2008 DJW
Last Modified:
April 27, 2008