By Scott Shane, New York Times

A judge on Thursday gave the Justice Department three weeks to report in writing whether the destruction of C.I.A. videotapes in November 2005 violated an order he issued four months earlier to preserve evidence.

The new order, issued by Judge Richard W. Roberts of the Federal District Court in Washington, is the first to require the Bush administration to provide information related to the videotapes’ destruction, which is under criminal investigation. The tapes showed harsh interrogation of two high-level Qaeda suspects, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Judge Roberts’s order came in the case of Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, a Yemeni electrician who is challenging his imprisonment at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mr. Abdullah’s lawyers say that because he is accused of having ties to Al Qaeda, it is likely that Mr. Zubaydah was asked about him during his interrogation. If so, they argue, the videotapes should have been preserved under Judge Roberts’s July 2005 order to “preserve and maintain all evidence” regarding Mr. Abdullah and several other Guantanamo prisoners.

(Original Article)