WASHINGTON — The CIA in 2005 destroyed videotapes of interrogations of senior al-Qaida captives in the early days of the war on terror after it told a federal judge no such recordings existed, its director disclosed Thursday.

In a letter to agency employees, CIA Director Michael Hayden said the decision to destroy the tapes was made "after it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries."

The existence of the videotapes was first disclosed by McClatchy last month.

The destruction of the tapes, thought to have shown the aggressive interrogation of al-Qaida leader Abu Zubaydah after his capture in Pakistan in 2002, could reignite a controversy over the agency's conduct and questioning methods.

Despite requests from the presiding judge in the 4 1/2-year prosecution of al-Qaida member Zacarias Moussaoui, the CIA didn't make the tapes available to the court before it destroyed them.

Edward MacMahon, who was one of Moussaoui's chief defense lawyers in the death-penalty case, said he was "shocked that a federal official would knowingly submit a false affidavit to a federal judge in a case where somebody's life was at stake."

Federal prosecutors disclosed in October that the CIA had twice misled the judge and defense lawyers in the Moussaoui case when it denied it had videotapes of captives sought by the defense. They informed U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of Alexandria, Va., and a federal appeals court the agency had two videotapes and one audiotape.

But it wasn't until Thursday that the CIA revealed the videotapes had been destroyed in 2005. Ironically, the disclosure came as a House of Representatives-Senate conference committee agreed on legislation to prohibit the CIA or any other intelligence agency from using interrogation techniques approaching torture.

In his letter to employees, Hayden said the videotapes were made as "an internal check" and "a backstop to guarantee that other methods of documenting the interrogations — and the crucial information they produced — were accurate and complete."

Hayden defended the use of severe interrogation tactics, which he said have "helped disrupt terrorist operations and save lives." He said the CIA designed "specific, appropriate interrogation procedures" after Zubaydah's capture in March 2002.

Zubaydah had been seriously wounded in a firefight before his capture and survived only because the CIA, which held senior al-Qaida captives in secret overseas prisons, arranged medical treatment, he said.

Hayden noted President Bush said publicly in September 2006 that "Zubaydah had more information that could save innocent lives, but he stopped talking."

The tactics were adopted, he said, "on a solid foundation of legal review."

That foundation, crafted by lawyers from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, provoked controversy and would be voided if the pending federal legislation is enacted.

After the agency determined "its documentary reporting was full and exacting," Hayden said, it halted the videotaping in 2002. Another senior al-Qaida figure, suspected Sept. 11, 2001, coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh, was captured in the fall of 2002, but it couldn't be learned whether he was videotaped during questioning.

Moussaoui's lawyers sought access to about a half dozen al-Qaida captives, including Zubaydah and Binalshibh, while defending Moussaoui against capital conspiracy charges.

On their request, in May 2003, Brinkema ordered the government to produce any video or audiotapes in its possession of interrogations of unidentified captives, but was told none existed. In late 2005, months after Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges but before his death-penalty trial, the judge again sought any interrogation tapes and was again told none existed.