Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture: Difference between revisions
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[[File:US Senate Report on CIA Detention Interrogation Program.pdf|thumb|The US Senate Report on CIA Detention Interrogation Program that details the use of torture during CIA detention and interrogation.]] |
[[File:US Senate Report on CIA Detention Interrogation Program.pdf|thumb|The US Senate Report on CIA Detention Interrogation Program that details the use of torture during CIA detention and interrogation.]] |
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| − | 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]] on the [[enhanced interrogation techniques]] |
+ | 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]] on the [[enhanced interrogation techniques]] on detainees practiced by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) 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.<ref name=NPR>{{cite news|url=http://www.npr.org/2014/04/03/298779799/senate-torture-report-takes-a-step-closer-to-becoming-public|title=Congress Clashes Over Release of CIA Torture Report|author=Lauren Hodges|date=8 December 2014|publisher=NPR News|accessdate=8 December 2014}}</ref><ref name=GuardDec0814>{{cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/top-senator-rejects-cia-torture-report-redactions-ahead-of-release|title=Top senator rejects CIA torture report redactions ahead of public release|author=Spencer Ackerman|date=5 August 2014|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|accessdate=8 December 2014}}</ref> |
Prior to the report's release there was speculation by the media that the report would be critical of the CIA's policies on torture during the [[War on Terror]] in the immediate years after the September 11 attacks.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/us/politics/bush-and-cia-ex-officials-rebut-torture-report.html|title=Bush and C.I.A. Ex-Officials Rebut Torture Report|author=Peter Baker|date=7 December 2014|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=8 December 2014}}</ref><ref name="ackerman1209">Spencer Ackerman, [http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/08/cia-torture-report-release-date-nears "CIA torture report: agency braces for impact of inquiry as release nears"], The Guardian, December 9, 2014.</ref> The 525-page unclassified portion of the report was released on December 9, 2014 after a presentation by California senator [[Dianne Feinstein]] in the Senate.<ref>{{cite web|title=Here’s What Dianne Feinstein Said About the Torture Report|url=http://time.com/3625560/torture-report-heres-what-dianne-feinstein-said/|publisher=Time Magazine|accessdate=9 December 2014}}</ref>The bi-partisan report included individual sections authored by Democrats and Republicans<ref name=BBCDec914>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30383924|title=CIA torture report: US raises security ahead of release|date=9 December 2014|publisher=BBC News Online|accessdate=9 December 2014}}</ref> and took four years to compile at a cost of $40 million.<ref name=GuardDec0914>{{cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-released|title=CIA's brutal and ineffective use of torture revealed in landmark report|author=Spencer Ackerman|date=9 December 2014|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|accessdate=9 December 2014}}</ref> |
Prior to the report's release there was speculation by the media that the report would be critical of the CIA's policies on torture during the [[War on Terror]] in the immediate years after the September 11 attacks.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/us/politics/bush-and-cia-ex-officials-rebut-torture-report.html|title=Bush and C.I.A. Ex-Officials Rebut Torture Report|author=Peter Baker|date=7 December 2014|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=8 December 2014}}</ref><ref name="ackerman1209">Spencer Ackerman, [http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/08/cia-torture-report-release-date-nears "CIA torture report: agency braces for impact of inquiry as release nears"], The Guardian, December 9, 2014.</ref> The 525-page unclassified portion of the report was released on December 9, 2014 after a presentation by California senator [[Dianne Feinstein]] in the Senate.<ref>{{cite web|title=Here’s What Dianne Feinstein Said About the Torture Report|url=http://time.com/3625560/torture-report-heres-what-dianne-feinstein-said/|publisher=Time Magazine|accessdate=9 December 2014}}</ref>The bi-partisan report included individual sections authored by Democrats and Republicans<ref name=BBCDec914>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30383924|title=CIA torture report: US raises security ahead of release|date=9 December 2014|publisher=BBC News Online|accessdate=9 December 2014}}</ref> and took four years to compile at a cost of $40 million.<ref name=GuardDec0914>{{cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-released|title=CIA's brutal and ineffective use of torture revealed in landmark report|author=Spencer Ackerman|date=9 December 2014|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|accessdate=9 December 2014}}</ref> |
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Revision as of 22:11, 9 December 2014
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 on the enhanced interrogation techniques on detainees practiced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 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]
Prior to the report's release there was speculation by the media that the report would be critical of the CIA's policies on torture during the War on Terror in the immediate years after the September 11 attacks.[3][4] The 525-page unclassified portion of the report was released on December 9, 2014 after a presentation by California senator Dianne Feinstein in the Senate.[5]The bi-partisan report included individual sections authored by Democrats and Republicans[6] and took four years to compile at a cost of $40 million.[7]
The report focused on the period from 2001 until 2006 and its findings detailed many illegal actions taken by the CIA officials as well as many shortcomings of the detention project.
Impetus for the report
California senator Dianne Feinstein said that the report was conducted after a CIA official, 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.[8]
Findings
Committee report key findings
The following 20 key findings and conclusions were published verbatim in the report.[9]
- The CIA's use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.
- The CIA's justification for the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness.
- The interrogations of CIA detainees were brutal and far worse than the CIA represented to policymakers and others.
- The conditions of confinement for CIA detainees were harsher than the CIA had represented to policymakers and others.
- The CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Department of Justice, impeding a proper legal analysis of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.
- The CIA has actively avoided or impeded congressional oversight of the program.
- The CIA impeded effective White House oversight and decision-making.
- The CIA's operation and management of the program complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions of other Executive Branch agencies.
- The CIA impeded oversight by the CIA's Office of Inspector General.
- 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.
- The CIA was unprepared as it began operating its Detention and Interrogation Program more than six months after being granted detention authorities.
- 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.
- Two contract psychologist 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The CIA failed to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation techniques.
- The CIA rarely reprimanded or held personnel accountable for serious or significant violations, inappropriate activities, and systematic and individual management failures.
- The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms, and objections concerning the operation and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.
- 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.
- 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
- Torture of prisoners led to serious mental harm (eg. dementia, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm [including suicide])[10]
- The CIA had force feed prisoners both orally and anally in order to establish “total control over the detainee.”[10] The Rome Statute defines defines "rape" as: "The perpetrator invaded the ... anal or genital opening of the victim with any object..."[11]
- 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.[12]
- 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).[12]
- The CIA had used waterboarding at locations where previously it claimed it had not (eg. at The Salt Pit).[12]
- Threats were made against the children or family members of prisoners.[13]
- The CIA killed at least one prisoner during interrogation.[13]
- 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.[12]
- 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.[14]
- One mentally challenged man was held by the CIA in order to obtain information from one of his family members.[14]
- The CIA kept incomplete records of who they kept prisoner.[14]
- Two former intelligence sources were jailed and tortured.[14]
- Two people identified by a prisoner as threats were jailed and tortured.[14]
See also
References
- ^ Lauren Hodges (8 December 2014). "Congress Clashes Over Release of CIA Torture Report". NPR News. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ a b Spencer Ackerman (5 August 2014). "Top senator rejects CIA torture report redactions ahead of public release". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ Peter Baker (7 December 2014). "Bush and C.I.A. Ex-Officials Rebut Torture Report". New York Times. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ Spencer Ackerman, "CIA torture report: agency braces for impact of inquiry as release nears", The Guardian, December 9, 2014.
- ^ "Here's What Dianne Feinstein Said About the Torture Report". Time Magazine. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ^ "CIA torture report: US raises security ahead of release". BBC News Online. 9 December 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ^ Spencer Ackerman (9 December 2014). "CIA's brutal and ineffective use of torture revealed in landmark report". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ^ Jose Rodriguez (intelligence officer) (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.
- ^
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document: "Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence".
- ^ a b U.S. Senate Report, Pg. 143,http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/09/world/cia-torture-report-document.html#p143
- ^ Template:Wayback. PDF: Archive copy at the Internet Archive PDF. International Criminal Court
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b http://www.svt.se/nyheter/varlden/cia-vilseledde-makthavarna-om-forhorsmetoder
- ^ 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.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Government.