US govt report slams CIA for brutal terror interrogations

NEW YORK — The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) misled Congress and White House officials about its interrogations of terror suspects and mismanaged a programme that was far more brutal and less effective than publicly portrayed, a report by Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee showed.

The harsh interrogations were not effective and did not produce key information that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, contrary to claims by the programme’s supporters. Its details were kept hidden from policymakers, said an executive summary of the 6,000-page report released yesterday in Washington.

“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,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the intelligence panel, said in a statement.

At least 26 of the detainees did not meet the standards for being held, the report said. In 2002, a detainee died of hypothermia while shackled to a concrete floor. Another was held for 17 days in the dark without anybody knowing he was there.

The final report, which cost US$40 million (S$52.7 million) and took six years to complete, is the most comprehensive assessment of the CIA’s so-called black site detention facilities and “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorism suspects following the attacks of Sept 11, 2001.

The release of the report has renewed debate about the CIA’s tactics and prompted warnings of possible reprisals against Americans or US facilities abroad. President Barack Obama ordered a stop to the programme when he took office in 2009 and supported the release.

The Defence Department warned US commands overseas on Dec 5 to take appropriate force protection measures in anticipation of the release.

Contrary to claims by the agency, the brutal methods did not lead US officials to the identity of Bin Laden’s courier, Abu Ahmed Kuwaiti, a finding that helped uncover the Al Qaeda leader’s location, the findings said.

The committee reviewed 20 of the most frequent and prominent examples of interrogation cases that the CIA claimed produced valuable information. None of them showed information was obtained that saved lives or that could not have been gleaned from other means, based on the findings.

Instead, the panel found that the CIA used interrogation techniques that differed significantly from those authorised by the Department of Justice and described to US policymakers and lawmakers. Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee released the findings over the objections of current and former US officials, including former President George W Bush.

The panel found no evidence that the CIA had briefed Mr Bush about the harsh interrogations prior to 2006, although it learnt that former Vice-President Dick Cheney was in meetings where the tactics were discussed.

Despite warnings from those who opposed the release of the report — including some Republicans on the panel — that Americans could face retaliation overseas, Mr Obama supported the move, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday. “The President believes that, on principle, it’s important to release that report, so that people around the world and people here at home understand exactly what transpired,” he said. Bloomberg