Jose A. Rodriguez Jr.
Daylife/Getty Images/CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency destroyed 92 videotapes documenting the “harsh interrogations” of two Al Qaeda suspects in C.I.A. detention, a greater number of destroyed tapes than the government had previously acknowledged.
The revelation came in a letter filed by federal prosecutors who are investigating the destruction of the tapes by the agency’s officers, which occurred in November 2005.
It had been previously known that officials of the agency had destroyed hundreds of hours of videotaped interrogations, but the documents filed Monday reveal the number of tapes for the first time.
The tapes had been held inside a safe in the C.I.A. station in Thailand, the country where two Al Qaeda suspects — Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri — were interrogated…
The order to destroy the tapes was given by Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who at the time was the head of the spy agency’s clandestine service. Prosecutors have spent months trying to piece together whether anyone besides Mr. Rodriguez may have authorized the destruction of the tapes, and to decide whether anyone should be indicted in the matter.
The tapes were destroyed at a time when Congress and the courts were intensifying their scrutiny of the agency’s detention and interrogation program.
Only the corrupt and guilty work so hard at trying to prevent the record of their transgressions from seeing the light of day. We all know of their corruption and guilt. But, they can maintain their protestations of innocence as long as they wish to – until proven otherwise.