The Senate Intelligence Committee just released a long awaited report on the CIA’s torture
techniques after 9/11.
The report has caused tension between the CIA, Congress, and the White House and there
is some concern that the report’s release will spark more anti-American sentiment around
the world.
So, what exactly is in this report?
We all know that the CIA was authorized to torture suspected terrorists during this time
period.
But this newest report found that the CIA tortured more people in more brutal ways than
they previously admitted and that they got less information out of these interrogations
than they previously led the public to believe.
Detainees were kept in conditions compared to dungeons, deprived of sleep for up to a
week, unnecessarily fed rectally and subjected to sexual, physical and mental abuse.
At the time a CIA director was instructed to keep the publically acknowledged number
of prisoners at 98, but the report found that at least 119 people were detained.
26 of which were wrongfully held.
The CIA also grossly underreported the amount of water boarding.
The CIA claimed that only three detainees were waterboarded, but the report found evidence
suggesting that waterboarding was used on more detainees.
They clearly downplayed and even lied about their activities, but it’s the lies they
told about their results that is now being seen as a bigger issue.
The report claims that the CIA’s excessive and brutal torture methods did not produce
any information that couldn’t have been obtained through other means.
The report discredited 20 different torture cases deemed successful by the CIA.
Most of the information that was extracted through torture was already given to the CIA
from other sources, while other information were just lies, given by prisoners to stop
the torture.
The report concluded that CIA torture during this time period did not produce any information
that led to lives being saved.
The report also found that the entire program was highly mismanaged.
The CIA contracted a company run by two psychologists to organize and orchestrate their torture
program.
These psychologists had no prior experience with interrogation techniques, no expertise
in counterterrorism, and did not speak the language of the people they were in charge
of interrogating.
In exchange for setting up and running their torture program which has been called “sadistic
and terrifying” by one member of the CIA, these contractors were paid $81 million dollars.
The report also showed that the CIA trained and staffed their facilities with numerous
soldiers who had previously admitted or were disciplined for sexual assaults, anger management
issues or engaging in inappropriate interrogations.
This led to various incidents of mistreatment including death and mistakenly torturing two
CIA informants.
In response to the report, the CIA released a rebuttal defending their use of torture.
However, they also admit to “mismanagement at multiple levels” and inflating the importance
of some information gained through torture.
Whether you agree with George W. Bush that torture is an effective way to protect your
country or with Senator McCain who feels that torture does more harm than good, the facts
of the report show that the CIA misled the public and the government.
Our country’s government has been grappling with how to deal with long-time prisoners
in Guantanamo Bay for years.
If you would like to learn more about the issues there,, take a look at our video explaining
the situation there.