A former C.I.A. station chief who in 2005 pushed to destroy videotapes of terrorism detainees being tortured at a secret overseas prison later told the F.B.I. that he “did not want to leave a mess” for his successor, and viewed himself as “cleaning up multiple loose ends,” newly declassified documents show. When the destruction of the tapes came to light in 2007, it prompted an uproar and investigations by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Justice Department. Those inquiries expanded to examine the torture program itself — one of the most disputed aspects of the Bush administration’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
The account by the station chief, who appeared to be based in Thailand even though his location and name were redacted, was among 38 pages of F.B.I. interview notes released to The New York Times in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records from a criminal investigation led by John H. Durham, a prosecutor who scrutinized the program years later. The interview notes were the first tranche to be released,chipping away at a wall of secrecy around Mr.
Durham’s investigative files. The larger trove of F.B.I. interview reports — some 1,900 pages expected to be released in the coming months — could offer crucial insights into the contentious program. Administrations of both parties have fought for years to keep the records hidden.
The most detailed available history — a 525-page executive summary of a study by the Senate Intelligence Committee that otherwise remains classified — relied on documents. C.I.A. defenders sought to discredit it because committee staff members did not conduct interviews. Durham’s concurrent investigation explained that omission.
Facing potential criminal jeopardy, C.I.A. officials refused interviews with Senate staff members, and Mr. Durham declined to coordinate interviews by notifying the committee when he had finished with a witness who faced no legal jeopardy. Durham ultimately decided not to charge anyone at the agency.
Durham was appointed in 2008 to look into the C.I.A.’s destruction of videotapes showing the torture of terrorism detainees at a “black site” prison.Credit...Bob Child/ The New York Times unsuccessfully sued in 2014 for Mr. Durham’s reports and F.B.I. interview records. After Congress revised legal standards for Freedom of Information Act releases in 2016, the paper sued again in 2022.
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