At one point in his speech, Colonel Qaddafi waved aloft a copy of the United Nations charter and seemed to tear it, saying he did not recognize the authority of the document.
Given the undisputed fact that law claims authority, the only way to avoid an infinite regress is to assume that the authority of the foundational document or constitution derives from a "basic norm" (Grundnorm in German), the substance of which is something like "the constitution is to be obeyed".
Calderon's court filing accuses the authorities of leaking the document.
After numerous legal skirmishes, state courts ultimately ruled last year that Cuccinelli did not have the legal authority to compel release of the documents.
He clearly was on the radar screen of the authorities, though the documents suggest that they were uncertain how much of a threat he might be, or unclear on how to respond to him.
During a deposition last Monday, lawyers for the S.E.C. questioned Mr. Prater about several transactions they claimed violated the injunction and represented "a flagrant disregard for the authority of the court," the court documents said.
Asked why he would not simply allow the release of the documents from the committee's hearings, Mr. Torricelli said: "I don't have the authority or the documents.
They echoed Mr. Astakhov's demand that American officials provide the Russian authorities copies of all of the documents in the case.
A statement published Friday night by the regional investigative committee said the authorities were verifying the documents of the detainees, who include citizens of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as an Egyptian and an Afghan.
While some of the documents warned Libyan authorities to respect such detainees' human rights, the C.I.A. nonetheless turned them over for interrogation to a Libyan service with a well-known history of brutality.
