Edward Snowden has responded to reports the CIA inspector general’s office “mistakenly” destroyed its only copy of a comprehensive Senate 'torture report' with a stinging rebuttal: “When the CIA destroys something, it's never a mistake.”

An intelligence agency was quoted by Yahoo News as saying CIA inspector general officials deleted an uploaded computer file containing the report, before "inadvertently" destroying a disk with the document on it.

The 6,700 page report detailed controversial “enhanced” interrogation methods deployed by the CIA at overseas prison sites. These included waterboarding and sleep deprivation. Another copy exists elsewhere at the CIA but the destruction of the copy at the inspector general’s office was never confirmed to the public, according to Yahoo's report.

Most controversial Nobel Peace Prize nominees Show all 5 1 /5 Most controversial Nobel Peace Prize nominees Most controversial Nobel Peace Prize nominees Edward Snowden 2014: The National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has been nominated by two Norwegian MPs for the Nobel Peace Prize, meaning the US contractor currently claiming asylum in Russia could be awarded the same prize accepted by President Barak Obama in 2009 Most controversial Nobel Peace Prize nominees Vladimir Putin 2013: The Russian President Vladimir Putin was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize because the former KGB agent “actively promotes settlement of all conflicts arising on the planet,” according to the advocacy group that nominated him, at least Most controversial Nobel Peace Prize nominees Barack Obama 2009: US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” shortly before launching military airstrikes in Libya. The irony was not lost on Mr Obama it seemed, who during a press conference joked: "[Energy Secretary Steven] Chu's the right guy to do this, he's got a Nobel Prize in physics - he actually deserved his Nobel Prize" Most controversial Nobel Peace Prize nominees Henry Kissinger 1973: Henry Kissinger was awarded the prize for his work on the Paris Peace Accords jointly with Le Duc Tho, who turned the Prize down. The American humourist Tom Lehrer later quipped that Kissinger’s award represented the “death of satire” Most controversial Nobel Peace Prize nominees Josef Stalin 1945: Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was nominated for “his efforts to end World War II”. Fellow nominee Vladimir Putin recently said there was no difference between him and Oliver Cromwell, when asked whether he would erect a statue of Stalin in Moscow

The fugitive National Security Agency whistleblower responded to the allegations on Twitter, telling his millions of followers: “I worked @CIA. I wrote the Emergency Destruction Plan for Geneva. When CIA destroys something, it's never a mistake.”

Snowden continues to seek asylum in Russia after being charged under the Espionage Act for leaking classified details of mass surveillance by the US Government. He began working for the CIA within its global communications division after leaving university before moving to computer systems and operations, eventually transferring to the NSA.

Cheney: CIA Torture Report Is Full of Crap

The full report is still classified and may never be published in full. A 500 page summary was published by Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in 2014 and made available to the public.