The CIA destroyed video evidence of severe interrogation techniques used on al-Qaeda operatives detained under the agency’s controversial rendition programme, the New York Times reported today.

The decision to destroy two videotapes was taken in November 2005 amid increasing media attention on the practise of extraordinary rendition, under which detainees are flown to secret locations abroad to be held outside the reach of US law, and interrogation methods. The footage was disposed of in order to shield agents from retaliation and prosecution, the report said, citing former and current government officials.

The tapes reportedly showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism suspects - including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in CIA custody - to coercive interrogation techniques.

CIA chief Gen. Michael Hayden on Thursday told colleagues that the decision to destroy the tapes was made “within the CIA,” in order to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they were no longer of intelligence value, the report said.

"The tapes posed a serious security risk," the CIA's director, Michael Hayden, told agency employees in a statement yesterday, released after he learned the New York Times were about to publish the story. "Were they ever to leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who had served in the programme, exposing them and their families to retaliation from al-Qaida and its sympathisers."

The report is set to reignite the debate over severe interrogation techniques, coming as it does as lawmakers consider whether to submit intelligence officials to the same rules as the military and ban all forms of torture.

However their destruction is also likely to prompt questions as to whether agency officials withheld information about the rendition programme from investigators. Officials from the September 11 commission told the newspaper that they had requested interrogation evidence from the CIA and had been told that they had indeed received all materials. Lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man convicted over the 9/11 attacks, had also requested such submissions.

The American Civil Liberties Union meanwhile voiced concern at the actions of the CIA. “The destruction of these tapes appears to be part of an extensive, long-term pattern of misusing executive authority to insulate individuals from criminal prosecution for torture and abuse,” it said in a statement.

The Washington Post, which also carried an online report about the tapes, reported that the order to dispose of them was given by Jose Rodriguez Jr, then the director of the CIA's clandestine operations.

Hayden's memo, obtained by CNN, said that while the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees - then Republican - knew of existence of the footage and the CIA's decision to destroy it, Democratic committee members had not been informed, despite their request that such interrogations be filmed.

He said the interrogations were taped in 2002 after President George Bush authorised the use of severe techniques, including the highly controversial practice of waterboarding, against al-Qaida detainees.

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