New tapes emerge of CIA interrogation

The CIA has tapes of the alleged 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments helped the US in holding and questioning suspected terrorists.

The two videotapes and one audiotape are believed to be the only remaining recordings made within the clandestine prison system. The tapes depict Mr Binalshibh's interrogation sessions at a Moroccan-run facility the CIA used near Rabat in 2002, several current and former US officials told the Associated Press.

When the CIA destroyed its cache of 92 videos of two al-Qa'ida operatives, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Nashiri, being waterboarded in 2005, officials believed they had wiped away all of the agency's interrogation footage. But in 2007, a staffer discovered the tapes.

A Justice Department prosecutor who is already investigating whether destroying the Zubaydah and al-Nashiri tapes was illegal is now also looking at why the Binalshibh tapes were never disclosed. Twice, the government told a federal judge they did not exist.

The tapes could complicate US efforts to prosecute Mr Binalshibh, 38, who has been described as a "key facilitator" in the attacks on 11 September 2001. If the tapes surfaced at trial, they could reveal Morocco's role in a programme to hold people in secret overseas prisons.