New information on the torture of detainees in custody at CIA “black sites” has come to light, revealing that the videotaped torture of Abu Zubaydah, tapes destroyed in 2005 by the CIA, showed Zubaydah “vomiting and screaming” after being stripped naked and waterboarded.

CIA legal counsel John Rizzo termed the videos “very disturbing” but insisted that all of the torture was “legal” at the time and that the videos were “extraordinarily hard to watch.”

Jose Rodriguez, the author of a new book defending the torture of suspects as a proud moment in American history, insisted that he was perfectly within his rights to order all of the videos of the torture to be destroyed. He insisted that the destruction was vital because the “heat from destroying the tapes is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes got into the public domain.”

Bush Administration officials repeatedly defended the torture, insisting that secret memos agreed that the policy was legal. The Obama Administration has refused to investigate the abuse.