U.S. Begins Disclosing C.I.A. Interview Reports From Scrutiny of Post-9/11 Torture

The rolling release of long-secret files could add detail to the history of a legally disputed Bush-era counterterrorism program.

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.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions about the Durham investigation -- why it closed and what it found," said Daniel Jones, the chief investigator for the Senate Intelligence Committee's study. "The release of documents is really important."