CIA emails shed light on waterboarding

According to the 2005 messages, former agency chief Porter Goss agreed with a decision to destroy videos, but Harriet Miers was kept out of the loop.

From the Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Former CIA Director Porter Goss agreed with a 2005 decision to destroy interrogation videos showing waterboarding, but nobody told White House counsel Harriet Miers, who was "livid" to find out afterward, according to internal CIA e-mails released Thursday.

The documents show that, despite Goss' apparent agreement, officials almost immediately began worrying they'd done something improper, foreshadowing a controversy that has lingered for years and remains under FBI investigation.

The videos showed CIA interrogators using waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique, on terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah. The videos showed that interrogators did not follow the waterboarding procedures authorized by President George W. Bush's administration, the documents show.

Jose Rodriguez, the agency's top clandestine officer, worried the 92 tapes would be "devastating" to the CIA if they ever surfaced, the documents show. Rodriguez approved the destruction of the tapes.

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