U.S. Senate report on CIA torture

[2][3] The more-than 6,700-page report (including 38,000 footnotes)[4] details the history of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program and the Committee's 20 findings and conclusions.

It concluded that the use of enhanced interrogation techniques did not yield unique intelligence that saved lives (as the CIA claimed), nor was it useful in gaining cooperation from detainees, and that the program damaged the United States' international standing.

The tapes showed CIA officers and contractors using torture techniques such as waterboarding on detainees Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

But in an omission that would later become part of a criminal investigation, neither Tenet nor anyone else from the CIA in the meeting mentioned that, in fact, the Agency had in its possession at that point hundreds of hours of videotapes of the interrogations of Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, both of whom were waterboarded.

[2] In August 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a parallel preliminary criminal investigation into the use of unauthorized interrogation techniques by CIA officials.

[23] As described in the Senate report, an additional 9,400 classified documents repeatedly requested by the SSCI were withheld by the White House under a claim of executive privilege.

[28] On April 3, 2014, the SSCI voted 11–3 to submit a revised version of the executive summary, findings, and recommendations of the report for declassification analysis in preparation for future public release.

[29] After eight months, involving contentious negotiations about what details should remain classified,[7][8] the revised executive summary, findings, and recommendations were made public with many redactions on December 9, 2014.

The CIA conceded that pseudonyms could be used for contractors and interrogators James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, despite the fact that they had both been identified publicly prior to the report's release.

[36] In March 2014, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, confirmed that a portion of the "Panetta Review" had been copied and transferred to a safe in the Senate's Hart Office Building.

Feinstein also said that the CIA's acting general counsel, later identified as Robert Eatinger, requested the FBI conduct a criminal inquiry into the committee staff who had accessed and relocated the "Panetta Review" documents.

[1] There is only one example in CIA records of the Agency holding personnel accountable for wrongfully detaining individuals who they themselves determined did not fit MON criteria.

One internal CIA communication said that "no professional in the field would credit their later judgments as psychologists assessing the subjects of their enhanced measures," and another noted, "Jim and Bob have shown blatant disregard for the ethics shared by almost all of their colleagues.

"[66] The CIA's contract with Mitchell and Jessen's company was terminated in 2009, but included a $5 million dollar indemnification agreement that covered the costs associated with any possible criminal prosecution.

"[1]: 71 of 499 Multiple CIA personnel also objected to contractors Mitchell and Jessen both acting as interrogators and psychologically evaluating detainees, as this was a conflict of interest.

"[1]: 43 of 499 In late 2002 and early 2003 Charlie Wise was the CIA's Director of Interrogation, and, with Mitchell and Jessen, one of the three individuals officially authorized to use Waterboarding.

[74][75][76] CIA Director John O. Brennan agreed with the current administration's policy prohibiting enhanced interrogation techniques[77] and admitted that the program had had "shortcomings.

[77] In supporting his views, Brennan also released a 136-page declassified version of an official CIA response and critique of the torture report written in June 2013.

[78] The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they would not be pursuing bringing any charges against anyone who might have been involved in the use of torture, noting that they "did not find any new information that they had not previously considered in reaching their determination.

[80] The rationale for the absence of charges has not been disclosed, but Mr. Durham did say that the full record of the possible evidence of criminal conduct and possible defenses that might be offered by any of those accused were contained in the pages of the Senate committee report that he was not going to release.

[87][88][89][90][91] The report's Executive Summary shows that Tenet, Goss, and Hayden all provided inaccurate information to the White House, Congress, and the public about the program, including regarding its effectiveness.

"[93] The report notes that in multiple CIA briefings and documents for Cheney, the Agency repeatedly misrepresented the program's results and effectiveness.

[1]: 228, 241–42, 289, 335, 353 of 499 John Yoo, author of the Torture Memos, criticized the report as a partisan attack on American intelligence agencies and defended his belief that the CIA was legally allowed to use interrogation techniques that did not cause injury.

They also asserted that the program "developed significant intelligence that helped us identify and capture important al-Qa'ida terrorists, disrupt their ongoing plotting, and take down Usama Bin Ladin.

"[12] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued that the attorney general should appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a full investigation, with its director Anthony Romero saying the report showed the CIA had committed human rights violations.

"[14] Speaking on December 10, the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention Against Torture, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, commended the government's release of the report saying, "Few countries will admit that their state apparatus has been practicing torture, and many continue shamelessly to deny it—even when it is well documented..." Zeid called for accountability saying, "In all countries, if someone commits murder, they are prosecuted and jailed.

"[13] Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said the "shocking report shows violence, extremism, and secrecy as institutionalized in the US security system.

"[105] The North Korean government called on the United Nations Security Council to investigate the "most brutal medieval forms" of torture practiced by the CIA at "black sites" around the world.

[108] On December 29, 2016, less than a month before the end of the Obama administration, District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the preservation of the full classified report, in case it was needed during the prosecution or appeal of senior suspects during their Guantanamo Military Commissions.

[110] Following the release of the executive summary, on November 25, 2015, President Barack Obama signed into law the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which included an amendment sponsored by Senators John McCain and Dianne Feinstein to codify into law the ban on enhanced interrogation techniques laid out in President Obama's Executive Order 13491.