CIA destroyed al-Qaida interrogation video - Tapes included waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in ’02

The CIA videotaped the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the first major al-Qaida leader captured, but later destroyed the tapes, current and former intelligence officials tell NBC News.

The video, meant to instruct other agency personnel — as well as serve as an "internal check," included video of Zubaydah being subjected to waterboarding, the interrogation technique that simulates drowning and is the most controversial of the many techniques used on high-value al-Qaida detainees.

In a statement to agency employees released Thursday, CIA Director Mike Hayden revealed that the agency destroyed all copies of the video in 2005. While the official agency statement does not mention waterboarding, officials tell NBC News the videos included the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah, the leader in charge of al-Qaida's training camps. He was known as al-Qaida's "dean of students" and had an encyclopedic knowledge of al-Qaida operatives worldwide. He is now awaiting trial at the U.S. prison at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22134870/)

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