On December 6, 2007, CIA Director Mike Hayden sent a letter to CIA employees, discussing the recent admission that the CIA destroyed footage of suspected terrorists being subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. ” ‘As part of the rigorous review that has defined the detention program, the Office of General Counsel examined the tapes and determined that they showed lawful methods of questioning. The Office of Inspector General also examined the tapes in 2003 as part of its look at the Agency’s detention and interrogation practices. Beyond their lack of intelligence value–as the interrogation sessions had already been exhaustively detailed in written channels–and the absence of any legal or internal reason to keep them, the tapes posed a serious security risk. Were they ever to leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who had served in the program, exposing them and their families to retaliation from al-Qa’ida and its sympathizers.’ “
– Jonathan Karl And Maddy Sauer, “CIA Destroyed Videos of Interrogations,” ABC News, Dec. 6, 2007