From The Guardian:
Justification was fake:
The CIA’s justification for the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness.
CIA blocked DoJ:
The CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Department of Justice, impeding a proper legal analysis of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program.
CIA blocked Congress:
The CIA has actively avoided or impeded congressional oversight of the program.
CIA blocked the White House:
The CIA impeded effective White House oversight and decision-making.
It disrupted national security overall:
The CIA’s operation and management of the program complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions of other Executive Branch agencies.
CIA blocked their Office of Inspector General:
The CIA impeded oversight by the CIA’s Office of Inspector General.
They didn’t even care if it worked:
The CIA failed to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation techniques.
They stopped others from finding out that it wasn’t working:
The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms, and objections concerning the operation and management of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program.
It fucked things up for the next several decades:
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
From Salon:
It didn’t work:
Of 20 reported “counterterrorism successes” cited by agency officials who claimed that the use of torture was essential to thwarting terror plots. In some of the cases, the report states, there was “no relationship” between the counterterrorism success and the use of torture.
Sleep deprivation for over a week:
CIA facilities would be deprived of sleep for days on end — in some cases for up to 180 hours.
9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times:
The waterboardings eventually turned into “a series of near drownings. .Abu Zubaydah, the CIA’s first detainee, also underwent waterboarding, once to the point that he became “completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth.”
Rectal hydration and feeding:
Agency interrogators forced at least five detainees to undergo “rectal rehydration” or “rectal feeding” even in the absence of any “documented medical necessity,”
Detainees familes were threatened:
CIA interrogators threatened to harm detainees’ families — including threats to harm a detainee’s children, to commit sexual violence against a detainee’s mother, and to slit a detainee’s mother’s throat.
CIA lied about how many in the detainee population:
Even though the agency publicly maintained that it held 98 prisoners, CIA records indicated that 119 detainees were in its custody.
Detainees forced to stand on broken legs:
Detainees who had sustained either broken legs or feet were made to stand in stress positions, the committee found.
From a Think Progress rundown:
Torture didn’t help get Bin Laden:
Torture did not lead the CIA to the courier who ultimately helped capture Osama bin Laden.
CIA staff objected to torture, leadership told them to keep going:
CIA personnel objected to torture techniques, but were “instructed” by the CIA headquarters to continue. Several on the team profoundly affected.. .some to the point of tears and choking up.
Two psychologists made $81 million justifying torture:
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
They hid it from Colin Powell:
“At the direction of the White House, the secretaries of state and defense – both principals on the National Security Council – were not briefed on program specifics until September 2003. An internal CIA email from July 2003 noted that “… the WH [White House] is extremely concerned [Secretary] Powell would blow his stack if he were to be briefed on what’s been going on.”
CIA didn’t punish an officer that killed a detainee:
In one instance, involving the death of a CIA detainee at COBALT, CIA Headquarters decided not to take disciplinary action against an officer involved because, at the time, CIA… In another instance related to a wrongful detention, no action was taken against a CIA officer
We tortured innocent people:
Of the 119 known detainees that were in CIA custody during the life of the program, at least 26 were wrongfully held.
The CIA inflicted propaganda on the public to guide opinion and stop criticism:
The CIA’s Office of Public Affairs and senior CIA officials coordinated to share classified information on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program to select members of the media to counter public criticism.
They dismissed information that later turned out to be true because it wasn’t obtained through torture:
KSM’s reporting during his first day in CIA custody included an accurate description of a Pakistani/British operative, which was dismissed as having been provided during the initial “‘throwaway’ stage” of information collection when the CIA believed detainees provided false or worthless information.’”
Torture techniques included mock burials and the use of insects:
“(1) the attention grasp, (2) walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap, (5) cramped confinement, (6) wall standing, (7) stress positions, (8) sleep deprivation, (9) waterboard, (10) use of diapers, (11) use of insects, and (12) mock burial.” [Page 32]
Contractors had previously been involved in sexual assault:
Group of officers included individuals who, among other issues, had engaged in inappropriate detainee interrogations, had workplace anger management issues, and had reportedly admitted to sexual assault.
Russian roulette:
“Among other abuses…had engaged in ‘Russian Roulette’ with a detainee.” [Page 424]
CIA tortured their own informants by accident:
After both detainees had spent approximately 24 hours shackled in the standing sleep deprivation position, CIA Headquarters confirmed that the detainees were former CIA sources.
We had a dungeon:
CIA detainees at the COBALT detention facility were kept in complete darkness and constantly shackled in isolated cells with loud noise or music and only a bucket to use for human waste. Lack of heat at the facility likely contributed to the death of a detainee. The chief of interrogations described COBALT as a “dungeon.”
It cost a lot:
CIA records indicate that the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program cost well over $300 million in non-personnel costs.
