The CIA destroyed 92 videotapes documenting interrogations carried out during its post-9/11 detention program, according to a federal court filing made public Monday. Acting US Attorney Lev Dassin disclosed the total in a letter dated 2 March to New York federal judge Alvin Hellerstein.
The recordings were made in 2002 and captured interrogations of two Al-Qaeda suspects, including sessions involving waterboarding, a simulated-drowning technique broadly regarded as torture. The agency destroyed them in 2005, citing the need to shield operatives' identities. Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden had first acknowledged the tapes' existence in December 2007.
The American Civil Liberties Union had filed suit against the CIA that same month. In Monday's letter, Dassin asked the court for time to prepare an inventory of the destroyed recordings along with any related transcripts or summaries. ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said the disclosure bolstered the case for holding the agency in contempt.
Virginia Acting US Attorney John Durham is conducting a parallel criminal inquiry into whether the destruction of the tapes violated federal law. George Tenet directed the CIA when the recordings were made; Porter Goss led the agency when they were erased.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in March 2009, in its own words.