A federal judge ruled today that suspected Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla is mentally competent, paving the way for his long-delayed case to proceed to trial, at long last, in April. But the ruling by U.S. Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami leaves open what may be more intriguing questions than those surrounding the defendant's mental health: what happened to a crucial video recording of Padilla being interrogated in a U.S. military brig that has mysteriously disappeared?

The missing DVD dates from March 2, 2004. It contains a video of the last interrogation session of Padilla, then a declared "enemy combatant" under an order from President Bush, while he was being held in military custody at a U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. But in recent days, in the course of an unusual court hearing about Padilla's mental condition, a government lawyer disclosed to a surprised courtroom that the Defense Intelligence Agency—which had custody of the evidence—was no longer able to locate the DVD. As a result, it was not included in a packet of classified DVDs that was recently turned over to defense lawyers under orders from Judge Cooke.

The disclosure that the Pentagon had lost a potentially important  piece of evidence in one of the U.S. government's highest-profile terrorism cases was met with claims of incredulity by some defense lawyers and human-rights groups monitoring the case. "This is the kind of thing you hear when you're litigating cases in Egypt or Morocco or Karachi," said John Sifton, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch, one of a number of groups that has criticized the U.S. government's treatment of Padilla. "It is simply not credible that they would have lost this tape. The administration has shown repeatedly they are more interested in covering up abuses than getting to the bottom of whether people were abused."

Alicia Valle, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miama, said in an e-mail to NEWSWEEK that the missing DVD was "of the last interrogation of Padilla while in military custody." She further added that a lawyer for DIA had advised the court "that an exhaustive search was conducted but the [DVD] could not be located." She added that a classified document summarizing what took place during the session did exist, however. (Valle did not respond to followup questions from NEWSWEEK, and a spokesman for the DIA said the agency could not comment because of the pending litigation.)

The contents of the DVD was at least theoretically relevant to the issue that was before Judge Cooke this week: whether Padilla was so traumatized by the way he was treated while he was in military custody that he is now mentally unfit to aid his own lawyers in his defense. But after several day of testimony, Cooke ruled otherwise. "The defendant clearly has the capacity to assist his attorneys," she declared today.

She added that the 36-year-old defendant, a former Chicago gang member with a long history of criminal conduct, appeared to have a good understanding of the legal proceedings involving him. "He is aware of the consequences," she said. After the ruling, Padilla, who has sat largely emotionless through the past few days of testimony about his mental competency, stood up and smiled, making a point of shaking the hands of each one of his defense attorneys.