By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

 

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States Of America – According to a recently published report by Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee, during the Bush administration the CIA misled congress as it conducted interrogations of terror suspects that were far more brutal than what was publicly conveyed. Among the revelations of the report were that President George W. Bush was not briefed by the CIA about the details of the interrogations, which began post 9/11 until 2006. The report also indicates that after being briefed Bush expressed his concern and discomfort about a detainee who was “chained to the ceiling, [and] forced to soil himself.”

The report finds that at least 119 detainees went though the CIA detention program and at least 26 were held without information to justify their detention. The report states that the techniques used were “deeply flawed,” poorly managed and most times the result of fabricated information. Some of the egregious instances of torture in the report include a detainee chained to a wall, standing, for 17 days, sleep deprivation for extended periods of time, ice water baths, and force feedings. It has been clear since 2009, that the Obama administration released details regarding how investigators used waterboarding. The reports says that such techniques “were not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.”

The central claim of the report is that the CIA methods of interrogation did not produce information that was necessary to save lives that was no available by some other means. The long awaited study went through more than six million CIA comments The report has reignited the partisan divide over combating terrorism. Many democrats have argues that the tactics used by the CIA conflict with American values. On the other hand, CIA Director John Brennan issued a statement that challenged several conclusions of the report. Also, former senior intelligence officials have launched a website, CIASavedLives.com, that attempts to refute the findings.

Brennan has issued a statement that the CIA has learned from its mistakes, but maintained his claim that the idea that the agency systematically misled top government officials about its tactics. The agency says that the conclusions of the report contain too many flaws to be held as an official record of the program.

 

For more information, please see the following:

BLOOMBERG- CIA Misled Bush, Congress On Interrogation Tactics, Report Finds – 9 Dec. 2014.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Terror and Torture, In Hindsight – 9 Dec. 2014.

CNN – Senate Report: CIA Misled Public On Torture – 9 Dec. 2014.

REUTERS – CIA Tortured, Misled, U.S. Report Finds, Drawing Calls For Action– 9 Dec. 2014.