CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes

The Central intelligence Agency (CIA) has destroyed 92 tapes of interviews conducted with terror suspects, a US government lawyer has admitted.

The agency had previously said that it had destroyed only two tapes. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a lawsuit against the CIA to seek details of the interrogations of terror suspects. Techniques involved are understood to have included water-boarding, which the Obama administration says is torture.

The acknowledgment of the 92 destroyed tapes came in a letter sent to the judge presiding over the ACLU lawsuit. "The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," the letter by acting US Attorney Lev Dassin, obtained by the BBC, said. "Ninety-two videotapes were destroyed."

Classified?

The letter, dated 2 March, said the CIA was gathering more details for the lawsuit, such as a list of the destroyed records, any secondary accounts describing what was on the destroyed tapes, and the identities of those who may have viewed or possessed the recordings before their destruction. ...

via BBC NEWS | Americas | CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes.

What ticks me off is the vile lie in the definition of waterboarding. This was on the bbc's site:

Water-boarding: prisoner bound, with cellophane wrapped round his head. Water is poured onto his face and is said to produce a fear of drowning.

There is a disturbing reality warp in this description of water boarding. Saying that it is “said to produce a fear of drowning” is like saying being shot is said to produce a fear of being shot. Water boarding is not “simulated” anything. It is real drowning. It is suffocation torture. Cellophane to stop the water from actually going into the person's nose mouth and lungs is not used.

According to the New York Times (May) waterboarding was used by the CIA on Khalid Shaik Mohammed, an Al Qaeda leader. This is the paper's description of the practice: “a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.”

The Washington Post defined water boarding as “an interrogation technique in which a detainee is strapped to a board and pushed underwater to make him think he might drown.”

And what you get as a result, is a person who lies to save his life. Torture is worthless and sadistic. Stop doing it, and stop lying about it.