Clarification:
Did a Magistrate seriously just imply that preventing meta-gaming is not their job?
Why yes, I did.
Our job is to enforce the Social Contract and the IRs. Please note that nowhere in either document does the word 'meta-gaming' even appear. If our job IS to prevent meta-gaming, then the Social Contract should be modified to include a clause that defines and explicitly bans 'meta-gaming'. The closest we get is the clause you are referencing about exploiting bugs; this is not the same as meta-gaming, which is a *far* broader term. You can also fairly argue that the very idea of 'Fair Play' precludes meta-gaming, however I'm not sold on that. Meta-gaming is defined thusly:
"...the use of out-of-game information or resources to affect one's in-game decisions."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetagamingThis sin is committed routinely, by even the most well-intentioned players. By pen and paper standards, BM has a *lot* of highly arbitrary limitations on your characters' actions. Not all of them are easily explicable in RP terms. We must, by necessity, use OOC information about the game mechanics to make rational decisions about what to do in the game. I.e, we have to RP *around* the game, within the limits that we all know exist OOC. Just like you know that the only way to win a rebellion is to capture the capital, or that you can only recruit troops in your capital as opposed to any region with a recruitment center (which have a proven effect on character actions), so too do you know that the only foolproof way to get an accurate copy of a letter you weren't the original recipient of is through a torture report. We meta-game more or less constantly. Do I approve of what the GM is doing here? No. I do not. I think it's pretty lame actually, mostly for the many reasons you've already spelled out. However, I do not think our mandate covers this particular scenario.
This is not a bug. This *could* be construed as a loophole, however since the GM does not benefit from it unless you actually agree to supply him with what he's asking for, it's hard to say that he's exploiting it. Seeing as he could decide to destroy Terran for any reason at all, even a completely arbitrary one, his asking you for this particular thing is hardly exploitative since it confers upon him no advantage, even if he were to get it. Poor RP? Definitely. However we don't punish that here, we merely heap derision upon it.
EDIT: Just to clarify, some forms of meta-gaming, such as the exploitation of bugs to gain a material advantage in the game, are *clearly* against the spirit of Fair Play. In my opinion this is not one of them.