CIA destroyed 92 interrogation tapes

NEW YORK, March 2 (UPI) -- The Central Intelligence Agency has destroyed 92 videotape records of harsh interrogations of two suspected al-Qaida operatives, U.S. prosecutors say.

It had been previously reported the CIA destroyed some videotapes of interrogations, but a letter filed Monday by federal prosecutors indicated for the first time the specific number destroyed, The New York Times reported.

The prosecutors have been conducting a criminal investigation since January 2008 into the destruction of tapes by CIA officers in November 2005. The letter was filed with a New York court in response to a Freedom of Information Act filing by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is asking the court to hold the CIA in contempt for destroying the videotapes.

The tapes had been kept in a safe at the CIA station in Thailand, where suspected al-Qaida operatives Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were interrogated. They were destroyed on orders of Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who was head of the agency's clandestine service, at around the same time as the agency's detention and interrogation policies were coming under stepped up scrutiny by Congress and the courts, the Times said.