Judge delays ruling on CIA tapes hearing

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Washington delayed a ruling Friday for a hearing on the destruction of two CIA tapes.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy said he would decide later on the motion by lawyers for Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo.

Kennedy seemed to be supportive of the U.S. Justice Department argument that it should be allowed to conduct its own investigations first, The New York Times reported.

"Why should the court not permit the Department of Justice to do just that?" Kennedy asked David H. Remes, one of the lawyers seeking the hearing.

Remes suggested the Justice Department has an inevitable conflict of interest.

"Plainly, the government wants only the foxes guarding the henhouse," he said in court papers.

In 2005, Kennedy ordered the government to preserve evidence on the mistreatment of Guantanamo detainees.

At the hearing, a Justice Department lawyer argued the order is irrelevant in this case because the tapes were of interrogations at CIA "black sites" of two men who were later transferred to Guantanamo, The Washington Post reported.