A new documentary aired Tuesday exposes the hipocrosy of Washington when it comes to human rights as it confirms the United States Central Intelligence Agency deleted every videotape of torture being carried in their detention centers around the world.

The agency would have taken the decision to destroy the evidence due to “serious security risks” if the videotapes were released to the public, but in reality they fear backlash or even embarrassment as Washington is quick to criticize the human rights situation in other countries when in fact, they have no moral ground to do so, as many governments have said, including Beijing, whose top officials said all countries have issues when it comes to civil rights.

The documentary, produced and aired by PBS, features several interviews and evidence that confirms the destruction of the tapes, containing hundreds of hours of footage showing the atrocities committed by CIA agents against detainees.

When it first came to light that some interrogation tapes had been destroyed in 2007, the agency justified the measure alleging it was to protect the identities of their agents, however, as the PBS documentary reveals, the CIA had taken the measure out of fear of repercussions if the public were to see them

“I was told, if those videotapes had ever been seen, the reaction around the world would not have been survivable,” investigative journalist Jane Mayer of the New Yorker magazine told PBS.

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According to the documentary, the CIA panicked after pictures of Abu Ghraib showing prisoner abuse were made public and sparked a scandal.

John Rizzo, a former attorney for the agency, and Michael Isikoff, journalist working for Newsweek magazine, confirmed that the tapes were destroyed. A CIA top operations officer named Jose Rodriguez suggested the tapes could be destroyed in order to avoid anyone ever being able to release them. 

Rizzo later received an agency cable confirming that they had been destroyed in accordance with the plan.

The destruction of the tapes, according to Rizzo, could constitute a crime since they were relevant to a legislative inquiry into CIA torture. However, in 2006, President George W. Bush granted immunity to all agents working in the CIA detention program.