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Senate
accuses CIA of torturing prisoners, overstepping legal boundaries
The
intelligence committee of the United States Senate has released its
long-awaited congressional report detailing the CIA’s use of
torture on prisoners in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks
RT,
9
December , 2014
The
intelligence committee of the United States Senate has released its
long-awaited congressional report detailing the CIA’s use of
torture on prisoners in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks.
On
Tuesday, the executive summary of the roughly 6,000-page report was
finally published by the Senate Intelligence Committee, for the first
time exposing the panel’s findings following a four-year-long
investigation conducted at a cost of more than $40 million.
“There
may never be the right time to release this report,” Sen. Dianne
Feinstein (D-California), the committee’s chair, said on the Senate
floor early Tuesday concurrent with the release of the executive
summary. “The instability we see today will not be resolved in
months or years. But this report is too important to shelf
indefinitely.”
A
fraction of the full report, the 480-page executive summary contains
the committee’s conclusions concerning the post-9/11 tactics
deployed by the CIA under the administration of US President George W
Bush in an attempt to gain intelligence from suspected terrorists.
Those techniques, including sleep deprivation and the
simulated-drowning practice known as waterboarding, have since been
reined in by Pres. Barack Obama; with respect to their impact, Sen.
Feinstein said previously that her panel’s probe lent to “critical
questions about intelligence operations and oversight” and
showed that the CIA undermined "societal
and constitutional values that we are very proud of.”
Among
the report’s findings is that: the CIA’s use of enhanced
interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring
intelligence; the CIA’s justification for the use of such tactics
rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness; the
interrogations and conditions of confinement of detainees was “far
brutal and far worse”
than the CIA claimed; and that the CIA “actively
avoided or impeded congressional oversight of the program.”
One
portion of the report reveals that the committee analyzed 20 of “the
most frequent and prominent examples of purported counterterrorism
successes that the CIA has attributed”
to its interrogation techniques, “and
found them to be wrong in fundamental respects.”
“In some
cases, there was no relationship between the cited counterterrorism
success and any information provided by detainees during or after the
use of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques,” the committee
determined.
“Some
of the plots that the CIA claimed to have ‘disrupted’ as a result
of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques were assessed by
intelligence and law enforcement officials as being infeasible or
ideas that were never operationalized,”
reads another portion of the report’s summary.
In
a rebuttal released
by the CIA on Tuesday, however, the agency said those 20 instances
“remain valid examples of
the program’s effectiveness,”
nonetheless acknowledging “some
flaws in its past representations."
According
to excerpts, some detainees would be stripped naked and shackled,
then led along dirt hallways while being beaten by CIA officials.
Some prisoners were told they’d never leave alive, and others were
told by agents that their mothers would be raped or killed.
Routinely, detainees were force-fed rectally, according to the
Senate’s investigation, despite officials having not found any
medical necessity in doing as much; as a result, detainees suffered
from rectal prolapses and other after-effects.
“These
comments are not a condemnation of the CIA as a whole,”
Feinstein told the Senate on Tuesday. “The
CIA plays an incredibly important part in our nation’s security and
has thousands of dedicated and talented employees. What we have found
is that a surprisingly few people were responsible for designing,
carrying out and managing this program.”
Ahead
of Tuesday’s publication, both Bush and his former vice president,
Dick Cheney, went on the record to defend the CIA’s tactics and
condemn any efforts to discredit them.
“We’re
fortunate to have men and women who work hard at the CIA serving on
our behalf,” Bush told CNN’s Candy Crowley for an interview on
the “State of the Union” television program that aired Sunday.
“These are patriots and whatever the report says, if it diminishes
their contributions to our country, it is way off base.”
Speaking
to the New York Times, Cheney called the interrogation tactics
“absolutely, totally justified,” contrary to the committee’s
findings.
“What
I keep hearing out there is they portray this as a rogue operation
and the agency was way out of bounds and then they lied about it,” he
told the Times in a telephone interview.
“I
think that’s all a bunch of hooey. The program was authorized. The
agency did not want to proceed without authorization, and it was also
reviewed legally by the Justice Department before they undertook the
program.”
Some
American officials doubt the international community at large will
agree with the Bush administration, however, and have warned that
releasing the report could provoke violence.
"I
think this is a terrible idea," Rep.
Mike Rogers (R-Michigan), the chair of the House Intelligence
Committee, told CNN over the weekend with regards to the report's
release."Foreign partners
are telling us this will cause violence and deaths. Our own
intelligence community has assessed that this will cause violence and
deaths."
"There
are some indications that the release of the report could lead to a
greater risk that is posed to US facilities and individuals all
around the world," White
House spokesman Josh Earnest added on Monday."The
administration has taken the prudent steps to ensure that the proper
security precautions are in place at US facilities around the globe."
"We Tortured Some Folks": CIA Lied To Congress, Senate Torture Report Reveals
9
December, 2014
In
what we are confident everyone will find to be absolutely shocking
news, moments ago the Senate Torture report was released. The key
finding, hold on to your hats, is that the CIA "misled"
Congress. As for the timing of the release, which takes place at the
same time as Jonathan Gruber (Ph.D) is being grilled in the House, it
is hardly a coincidence that Obama does everything in his power to
deflect attention to what took place under the Bush administration,
commenting that "torture techniques did significant damage to
America’s standing” in the world. So what did the droning of
thousands of innocent civilians do to the same "standing"?
The
drilldown from Bloomberg:
- CIA provided inaccurate information about effectiveness and scope of interrogations of suspected terrorists, and mismanaged a program that was far more brutal than represented, according to 6-year investigation by Democrats on Senate Intelligence Cmte.
- Interrogation techniques weren’t effective, didn’t produce key information that led to killing of Osama bin Laden and were significantly different from procedures authorized by Justice Dept, report says
- CIA provided inaccurate information to White House, Congress, DOJ, CIA Inspector General, media and the public
- “This document examines the CIA’s secret overseas detention of at least 119 individuals and the use of coercive interrogation techniques - in some cases amounting to torture,” Senate Intelligence Cmte Chairman Dianne Feinstein says in statement
- Agency lost track of 119 detainees and at least 26 didn’t meet standards for being held, according to executive summary of 6,000-page report
- In fall of 2002, detainee died of hypothermia while shackled to concrete floor; another detainee was held for 17 days in the dark without anybody knowing he was there
- Interrogation of terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded at least 83 times, was more brutal than previously known; at one point, he was put in a 1 1/2 meter box and knocked unconscious during waterboarding session, while water and bubbles poured from his mouth
- Other detainees with broken legs and feet were inappropriately forced to sit in stress positions
- No evidence CIA briefed former President George W. Bush about harsh interrogations, though former Vice President Dick Cheney attended meetings where tactics were discussed
- Report details actions taken on terrorism suspects during George W. Bush administration; Bush called report “way off base” in interview with CNN
- CIA Torture Report Set for Senate Release Over Bush Objections
- Full Senate Intelligence Cmte wasn’t briefed on techniques until September 2006
- While some members, including Feinstein and GOP Sen. John McCain, raised objections, CIA informed DOJ Office of Legal Counsel in a classified setting that no senators objected
Obama
chimes in:
- The report documents a troubling program involving enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects,” President Obama says in e-mailed statement on release of CIA torture report.
- Report “reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests”
- Says techniques did “significant damage to America’s standing” in the world
Odd:
no comments by the Droner in Chief what droning thousands of innocent
women and children around the world does to America's "standing"
in the world.
President George W. Bush was never briefed by the Central Intelligence Agency on the details of harsh interrogation techniques and secret detention of terror suspects for the first four years of the controversial program, and when he did find out the details, he was “uncomfortable” with some of the practices, according to the long-awaited report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The 500-page declassified executive summary of the majority staff’s 6,700-page investigation into CIA rendition, detention and interrogation practices after 9/11 states that despite agency efforts to keep the Bush administration informed about the program, top White House officials repeatedly resisted having the CIA brief cabinet-level figures about the details, and CIA officials were not permitted to brief Bush directly until mid-2006, more than four years after the president signed a broad executive order authorizing the program, according to Senate Democratic aides who briefed reporters ahead of Tuesday’s release.
When Bush finally heard the details of the harsh interrogation techniques that were used against CIA detainees, he was “uncomfortable” with some of them and expressed dismay that some detainees were required to remain in stress positions for long amounts of time, to the point that they had no choice but to soil themselves, the aides said.
The committee’s investigation will also state, based on CIA’s internal correspondence, that two intelligence directors, George Tenet and Porter Goss, admitted they never briefed Bush directly on the techniques, even though the CIA inspector general recommended they do so in 2004.
The White House also resisted CIA efforts to brief other cabinet officials in the beginning stages of the program, Senate Democratic aides said. The CIA acting general counsel at the time, John Rizzo, wrote in an internal agency e-mail that the White House had told the CIA not to brief cabinet officials in 2002 because they feared press leaks, but Rizzo said the White House’s clear implication was that if Secretary of State Colin Powell were aware of the details, “he would blow his stack.”
Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were briefed on the interrogation techniques sometime in 2003, the committee report states. Other top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, also eventually received briefings about the details of the program, but not the president himself. The committee report states the briefings that did occur were often misleading or incomplete.
In one instance, Cheney was not made aware of a specific country’s hosting of a CIA "black site," which complicated his direct relations with that country, aides said. The names of countries that participated in the CIA program are not revealed in the declassified executive summary of the report.
“The CIA provided incomplete and inaccurate information to the White House regarding the operation and effectiveness of the detention and interrogation program,” a committee document on the report states. “In addition to inaccurate statements provided to other policymakers, there were instances in which specific questions from White House officials were not answered truthfully or completely.”
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Bush defended the CIA practices but didn’t mention he was kept out of the loop.
“Here’s what I’m going to say, that we’re fortunate to have men and women who work hard at the CIA serving on our behalf. These are patriots,” he said. “And whatever the report says, if it diminishes their contributions to our country, it is way off base.”
Cheney told The New York Times this week that he was properly informed and the CIA program operated within the authority given by the Bush administration, a claim vigorously disputed by the committee’s report.
“What I keep hearing out there is they portray this as a rogue operation, and the agency was way out of bounds and then they lied about it,” Cheney said. “I think that’s all a bunch of hooey. The program was authorized. The agency did not want to proceed without authorization, and it was also reviewed legally by the Justice Department before they undertook the program.”
In its response to the committee’s report, the CIA states that it is unknowable whether or not Bush was briefed on the details of the program prior to 2006 because CIA records are incomplete on the point. Rizzo, in his memoir “Company Man,” states that Bush probably wasn’t fully briefed on the details. The CIA points out that Bush claimed in his own memoir he was briefed on some details.
"The study asserts that the President was not briefed in a timely way on program details,” the CIA response states. “While the Agency records on the subject are admittedly incomplete, former President Bush has stated in his autobiography that he discussed the program, including its use of enhanced techniques, with then-DCIA Tenet in 2002, prior to the application of the techniques on Abu Zubaydah, and personally approved the techniques." (Zubaydah is a Saudi citizen still held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.)
Regardless, according to the report, which outgoing committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein will speak about this morning on the Senate floor, the CIA not only went well beyond the techniques and practices authorized by the Bush White House and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the agency misrepresented the program to top officials and used false information to gain approval from the White House and Justice Department.
“The CIA provided inaccurate information to the White House, Congress, the Justice Department, the CIA inspector general, the media, and the American public,” a document provided to reporters by the committee states.
But
before anyone gets too excited:
Live Coverage of the Senate Torture Report - The Intercept
...
here is Mike Krieger with the best summary:
From Glenn Greenwald...
From Dianne Feinstein’s summary of the report:
Feinstein comments
At roughly 11:00 am, Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein will make public comments about the report, although it’s unclear if it will be released simultaneously. You can watch those comments here.
Col. Morris Davis, the retired Air Force Colonel who served as the Chief Prosecutor of the Military Commissions at Guantánamo until 2007 when he lost his job for criticizing the tribunal, notes that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough this morning explicitly defended the torture techniques, arguing: “whatever it takes to keep America safe.” Aside from being the essence of the authoritarian mindset – security über alles - it’s quite striking that major television personalities in the U.S. explicitly justify the use of torture. Is there any other western country where that’s true? After all, The Washington Post hired former Bush speechwriter Marc Theissen as a columnist after he wrote an entire book justifying torture (when used by the U.S.).
The U.S. has led the way in destroying the ostensible western taboo surrounding torture, which is why official torturers go free and torture advocates are featured in almost every major media outlet.
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