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The US Senate Report on CIA Detention Interrogation Program that details the use of torture during CIA detention and interrogation.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program, commonly known as the CIA Torture Report, is a 6,000-page report compiled by the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s Detention and Interrogation Program using enhanced interrogation techniques (a euphemism for torture) on detainees following the September 11 attacks in 2001. The full report has not been published, but the committee voted in April 2014 to release the recommendations, executive summary, and findings of the report.[1][2]

A 525-page unclassified portion of the report was released on December 9, 2014, after a presentation on the floor of the Senate by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the chairwoman of the Select Committee on Intelligence.[3] Over 90% of the report remains classified.

The report, which took four years and $40 million to compile,[4] focused on 2001-06. It detailed actions by CIA officials and shortcomings of the detention project. One key finding was that enhanced interrogation techniques did not help acquire actionable intelligence or gain cooperation from detainees.[5]

Impetus for the report

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has been the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence since 2009.
See also: 2005 CIA interrogation tapes destruction

California Senator Dianne Feinstein said that the report was conducted after CIA Director of the National Clandestine Service, Jose Rodriguez, was found to have destroyed almost 100 video recorded interrogations in 2005. The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence believed that he was covering up illegal activities by the CIA although the committee had initially been told by CIA officials that Rodriguez was not engaging in 'destruction of evidence'.[2] Rodriguez preemptively criticized the report in an op-ed for The Washington Post on December 5, 2014.[6]

Approval and release

The final report was approved on December 13, 2012 by a vote of 9-6 with 7 Democrats, 1 Independent (Angus King), and 1 Republican (Susan Collins) voting in favor of publication and 6 Republicans voting in opposition.[7] On April 3, 2014, the SSCI voted 11-3 to submit a revised version of executive summary, findings, and recommendations of the report for declassification analysis in preparation for future public release.[7] After eight months, involving contentious negotiations about what details should remain classified,[2] the revised executive summary, findings, and recommendations were made public with some redactions on December 9, 2014.[7]

Concurrently with the public release, the six members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that voted against the report released their own 167-page report criticizing both the process and the conclusions of the report approved by the majority.[7]

Structure

The report is divided into seven sections, with three appendices. The first section provides the background to the committee's study and subsequent report. Section two provides an overall history of the operation of the CIA's detention and interrogation program and section three details the intelligence acquired by the CIA and their representations of the effectiveness thereof to various government agencies and officials (p.172-400). Section four provides an overview of the CIA's representations to the media during the period that their rendition program was classified (p.401-409). Sections five and six review the CIA's representations to the Department of Justice (p. 409-436) and their appearances before Congress (p.437-434) and the inaccurate information that they gave. Section seven details how the CIA's destruction of videotapes of interrogations led to the investigation and subsequent report, and the votes that lead to the publication of the report (p. 455-456) The three appendices comprise the reports terms of reference (p. 457), a list of CIA detainees from 2002-2008 (p.458-462) and an example of the inaccurate testimony provided by the CIA Director Michael V. Hayden to the intelligence committee from April 12, 2007 (p.462-499) [5]

Findings

The following 20 key findings and conclusions were published verbatim in the report.[5]

  1. The CIA's use of its enhanced interrogation techniques (a euphemism for torture) was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.
  2. The CIA's justification for the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness.
  3. The interrogations of CIA detainees were brutal and far worse than the CIA represented to policymakers and others.
  4. The conditions of confinement for CIA detainees were harsher than the CIA had represented to policymakers and others.
  5. The CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Department of Justice, impeding a proper legal analysis of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.
  6. The CIA has actively avoided or impeded congressional oversight of the program.
  7. The CIA impeded effective White House oversight and decision-making.
  8. The CIA's operation and management of the program complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions of other Executive Branch agencies.
  9. The CIA impeded oversight by the CIA's Office of Inspector General.
  10. The CIA coordinated the release of classified information to the media, including inaccurate information concerning concerning the effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques.[8]: 11 
  11. The CIA was unprepared as it began operating its Detention and Interrogation Program more than six months after being granted detention authorities.
  12. The CIA's management and operation of its Detention and Interrogation Program was deeply flawed throughout the program's duration, particularly so in 2002 and early 2003.
  13. Two contract psychologists devised the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques and played a central role in the operation, assessments, and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program. By 2005, the CIA had overwhelmingly outsourced operations related to the program.
  14. CIA detainees were subjected to coercive interrogation techniques that had not been approved by the Department of Justice or had not been authorized by CIA Headquarters.
  15. The CIA did not conduct a comprehensive or accurate accounting of the number of individuals it detained, and held individuals who did not meet the legal standard for detention. The CIA's claims about the number of detainees held and subjected to its enhanced interrogation techniques were inaccurate.
  16. The CIA failed to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation techniques.
  17. The CIA rarely reprimanded or held personnel accountable for serious or significant violations, inappropriate activities, and systematic and individual management failures.
  18. The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms, and objections concerning the operation and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.
  19. The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program was inherently unsustainable and had effectively ended by 2006 due to unauthorized press disclosures, reduced cooperation from other nations, and legal and oversight concerns.
  20. The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program damaged the United States' standing in the world, and resulted in other significant monetary and non-monetary costs.

Findings as reported by media outlets

  1. Torture of prisoners led to serious mental harm (eg. dementia, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm [including suicide])[8]: 143 
  2. The CIA had force fed prisoners orally and anally in order to establish “total control over the detainee.”[8]: 4 
  3. At least one prisoner was "diagnosed with chronic hemorrhoids, an anal fissure and symptomatic rectal prolapse," symptoms normally associated with a violent rape.[9]
  4. CIA officals Scott Miller and James Pavitt were told that rectal exams of at least two prisoners had been conducted with "excessive force."[9]
  5. The CIA's directors (George J. Tenet, Porter J. Goss and Michael V. Hayden) lied to members of the U.S. Congress, the White House and the Director of National Intelligence about the program’s effectiveness and the number of prisoners that the CIA held.[10]
  6. The CIA deliberated planted false stories with members of the media and claimed that the stories had been leaked (although CIA officials never investigated the leaks because they had themselves planned to leak the false and misleading information).[10][8]: 4 
  7. The CIA had used waterboarding at locations where previously it claimed it had not (eg. at The Salt Pit).[10]
  8. Threats to rape and murder were made against the children or family members of prisoners.[11][8]: 4 [12]
  9. In November 2002 the CIA killed at least one prisoner during interrogation by freezing him to death.[11][12]
  10. Some CIA personnel found the torture revolting and asked to be transferred from facilities where torture was being conducted. Some also questioned whether such activities could continue and were told that the senior officials in the CIA had approved these techniques.[10][12]
  11. At least 26 of the 119 (21% or just over 1 in 5) prisoners held by the CIA were later found to be innocent, many having also experienced torture.[13][12]
  12. One mentally challenged man was held by the CIA in order to obtain information from one of his family members.[13] [8]: 12 
  13. The CIA kept incomplete records of who they kept prisoner.[13]
  14. Two former intelligence sources were jailed and tortured by accident.[13][8]: 133 
  15. Two people identified by a prisoner as threats were jailed and tortured.[13]
  16. The CIA used torture on suspects before even evaluating whether they would cooperate.[12]
  17. At least four prisoners with injuries to their legs (two with broken feet, one with a sprained ankle and one with an amputated leg) were forced to stand on their injuries.[12]
  18. Prisoners were told that they would be killed (eg. one prisoner was told "we can never let the world know what I have done to you", another was told that the only way he would be allowed to leave the prison would be in coffin).[12]
  19. One CIA interrogator who was subsequently sent home early threatened a prisoner with a gun and power drill and played Russian Roulette with him.[9]
  20. At least two prisoners were victims of "mock executions."[9]
  21. Several prisoners almost died and became completely unresponsive or nearly drowned during waterboarding.[12]
  22. Abu Zubaydah's eye so badly damaged during his time in prison that it was amputated.[12]
  23. Prisoners were kept awake for over one week (180 hours) causing at least five to experience "disturbing" hallucinations.[12]
  24. One prisoner was psychologically traumatized to the point of being "a broken man" but CIA operatives stopped short of "complete[ly] break[ing] [him]."[12]
  25. The CIA lied in official documents to government officials about the value of information extracted from prisoners subjected to torture (e.g. stating that information extracted from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during torture had allowed for the capture of Riduan Isamuddin).[12]
  26. Despite contrary statements made by the CIA's Director, Michael V. Hayden, the CIA did employ individuals who "had engaged in inappropriate detainee interrogations, had workplace anger management issues, and had reportedly admitted to sexual assault."[12]
  27. CIA management chose not to discipline CIA employees following the death of one of their prisoners.[12]
  28. Prisoners were forced to use buckets for toilets.[9]
  29. A report by the Federal Bureau of Prisons found that "they [had] never been in a facility where individuals were so sensory deprised i.e., constatin white noise, no talking, everyone in the dark, with the guards wearing a light on their head when they collected and escorted a detainee to an interrogation cell, detaines constantly being shackled to the wall or floor, and the starkness of each cell (concrete and bars). There is nothing like this in the Federal Bureau of Prisons... detainees were not being treated... humanely."[9]
  30. A prisoner was tortured for months based on false accusations made by another prisoner who provided information while undergoing torture.[9]
  31. The CIA provided false information to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel about the methods of interrogation it was using against prisoners.[14]
  32. CIA Deputy Director Philip Mudd deliberately lied to Congress with false information about the program and stated that "We either get out and sell, or we get hammered, which has implications beyond the media. [C]ongress reads it, cuts our authorities, mess up our budget."[14]
  33. One prisoner was placed in a box the size of a coffin for over 11 days and was also placed for 29 hours in a box 21 inches wide, 2 1/2 feet deep and 2 1/2 feet high.[15]
  34. CIA interogators used unauthorized techniques such as forcing a prisoner to stand with his hand over his head for 2 1/2 days, putting a pistol next to his head and bathing him with a stiff brush.[15]

Enhanced interrogation techniques contractors

Two contractors that developed the "enhanced interrogation techniques" (John "Bruce" Jessen and James Mitchell), received US$81 million for their services, out of an original contract worth more than US$180 million. NBC News identified the contractors, who were referred to in the report via pseudonyms, as Mitchell, Jessen & Associates. Jessen was a senior psychologist at the Defense Department who taught special forces how to resist and endure torture (SERE). The report states that neither man had prior knowledge of Al Qaeda but they nevertheless "developed the list of enhanced interrogation techniques and personally conducted interrogations of some of the CIA's most significant detainees using those techniques. The contractors also evaluated whether the detainees' psychological state allowed for continued use of the techniques, even for some detainees they themselves were interrogating or had interrogated." The contractors developed a "menu" of 20 enhanced techniques including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and stress positions. The CIA acting general counsel, described the techniques as "sadistic and terrifying" in his book Company Man.[16] Mitchell and Jessen were formerly SERE psychologists who have been accused of "reverse-engineering" SERE techniques for use against detainees.[17]

Financial aspects

The Detention and Interrogation Program cost well over $300 million in non-personnel costs, according to the CIA.[8]: 16  This included funding for the CIA to construct and maintain detention facilities, including two facilities costing nearly $X million that were never used, in part due to host country political concerns. "To encourage governments to clandestinely host CIA detention sites, or to increase support for existing sites, the CIA provided millions of dollars in cash payments to foreign government officials.”[8]: 16 

In 2006, the value of the CIA’s base contract with the company formed by the psychologists with all options exercised was in excess of $180 million; "the contractors received $81 million prior to the contract’s termination in 2009. In 2007, the CIA provided a multi-year indemnification agreement to protect the company and its employees from legal liability arising out of the program. The CIA has since paid out more than $1 million pursuant to the agreement.”[8]: 11 

Reception

President Barack Obama said the report had revealed a "troubling program" and that "We will rely on all elements of our national power, including the power and example of our founding ideals. That is why I have consistently supported the declassification of today's report. No nation is perfect. But one of the strengths that makes America exceptional is our willingness to openly confront our past, face our imperfections, make changes and do better."[18]

John Brennan has been Director of the Central Intelligence Agency since March 2013.

CIA Director John O. Brennan agreed with the current administration's policy prohibiting enhanced interrogation techniques[19] and admitted that the program had had “shortcomings.”[15] He disagreed with the Committee's conclusion that information obtained through enhanced interrogation could have been obtained by other means, and said it is unknowable whether other interrogation approaches would have yielded the same information.[19]

Republican Party Senators Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said, "As we have both stated before, we are opposed to this study and believe it will present serious consequences for U.S. national security... Regardless of what one's opinions may be on these issues, the study by Senate Democrats is an ideologically motivated and distorted recounting of historical events. The fact that the CIA's Detention and Interrogation program developed significant intelligence that helped us identify and capture important al-Qa'ida terrorists, disrupt their ongoing plotting, and take down Usama Bin Ladin is incontrovertible. Claims included in this report that assert the contrary are simply wrong."[18] Republican Senators Marco Rubio R-Fla., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, stated that the report was a "partisan effort" by Democrats "could endanger the lives of Americans overseas" and was not "serious or constructive."[18]

Republican Party Senator and former 2008 Republican presidential candidate, John McCain said he supported the release of the report and said that those responsible for the interrogation policy had "stained our national honor, did much harm and little practical good.”[15]

Kenneth Roth from Human Rights Watch called for prosecutions of senior Bush officials who authorized torture and oversaw its use.[20]

ACLU argued that the attorney general should appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a full investigation, with its director Anthony Romero saying that the report showed the CIA had committed human rights violations.[21][15]

The United Nations's special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson, called for the prosecution of those responsible. He said that the CIA had “commit[ed] systematic crimes and gross violations of international human rights law.”[15]

Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said that he put pressure in 2003 on American officials to end interrogations at a secret CIA prison his country hosted, saying, "I told Bush that this cooperation must end and it did end."[21]

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius called on the US to say whether CIA used his country to interrogate prisoners.[21]

The President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani called the report "shocking", saying the actions "violated all accepted norms of human rights in the world".[21]

See also

Wikinews has related news:

External links

References

  1. ^ Lauren Hodges (8 December 2014). "Congress Clashes Over Release of CIA Torture Report". NPR News. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Spencer Ackerman (5 August 2014). "Top senator rejects CIA torture report redactions ahead of public release". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  3. ^ "Here's What Dianne Feinstein Said About the Torture Report". Time Magazine. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  4. ^ Spencer Ackerman (9 December 2014). "CIA's brutal and ineffective use of torture revealed in landmark report". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  5. ^ a b c Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Retrieved 2014-12-09
  6. ^ Jose Rodriguez (5 December 2014). "Today's CIA critics once urged the agency to do anything to fight al-Qaeda". The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d "Minority Views on to SSCI Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program" (pdf). December 9, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "The Senate Committee's Report on the C.I.A.'s Use of Torture". New York Times. 9 December 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Kreig, Gregory (9 December 2014). "16 Horrifying Excerpts From the Torture Report That the CIA Doesn't Want You to See". Mic. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  10. ^ a b c d Mazzetti, Mark (9 December 2014). "Senate Torture Report Condemns C.I.A. Interrogation Program". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  11. ^ a b http://www.svt.se/nyheter/varlden/cia-vilseledde-makthavarna-om-forhorsmetoder
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Matthews, Dylan (9 December 2014). "16 absolutely outrageous abuses detailed in the CIA torture report". VOX. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  13. ^ a b c d e Ashkenas, Jeremy (9 December 2014). "7 Key Points From the C.I.A. Torture Report". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  14. ^ a b John, Arit (9 December 2014). "The 10 Most Important Excerpts From the CIA Torture Report". Bloomberg. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Snyder, Jim (10 December 2014). "CIA Detainees Dragged Naked Down Corridors, Force-Fed Rectally". Bloomberg. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  16. ^ Windrem, Robert. "CIA Paid Torture Teachers More Than $80 Million". Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  17. ^ "Has Consulting Firm For CIA Gone MIA?". ProPublica. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  18. ^ a b c Herridge, Catherine; Pergram, Chad (2014-12-09). "Senate panel releases scathing report on CIA interrogations amid security warnings". Fox News. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  19. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference CIA Response was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Roth, Kenneth (December 9, 2014). "To deter U.S. from torturing again, those involved should be prosecuted". Reuters.
  21. ^ a b c d "CIA interrogations report sparks prosecution calls". BBC. Dec 10, 2014.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Government.

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