SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Torture Report: CIA Lying to US Public and Government
Washington Post exclusive shines light on damning contents of classified Senate Intelligence Committee report
Apr 01, 2014
A classified Senate Intelligence Committee report charges that the Central Intelligence Agency lied to the U.S. public and government for years about its brutal interrogation techniques by hiding the extent of abuse and misleading about the lives this interrogation saves.
This is according to an exclusive Washington Post report published Tuesday. Citing anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the 6,300 page document, journalists Greg Miller, Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima write that the report shows "a long-standing pattern of unsubstantiated claims as agency officials sought permission to use -- and later tried to defend -- excruciating interrogation methods that yielded little, if any, significant intelligence."
Furthermore, the report details "damning new disclosures about a sprawling network of secret detention facilities, or 'black sites,' that was dismantled by President Obama in 2009," the authors note.
While the Senate Intelligence Committee report was completed over a year ago, it remains secret despite President Obama's previous pledge to declassify the report and widespread calls for its release to the public. Yet, Washington Post sources were able to paint a chilling portrait of its contents, which includes evidence of:
- Internal divisions and discomfort within the CIA about its secret interrogations program. In one case, CIA officials walked away from a secret prison in Thailand due to discomfort with interrogation techniques being used there. In some cases, "officials at CIA headquarters demanded the continued use of harsh interrogation techniques even after analysts were convinced that prisoners had no more information to give," notes the report.
- New revelations of torture, including the torture of detainee Ali Abdul Aziz Ali at a black site near Kabul, where he was repeatedly dunked in ice water tanks. "CIA interrogators forcibly kept his head under the water while he struggled to breathe and beat him repeatedly, hitting him with a truncheon-like object and smashing his head against a wall, officials said," according to the report. CIA interrogators continued the torture even after it was clear he was cooperating.
- False claims from CIA officials that "enhanced interrogation techniques" save thousands of lives. Said one anonymous official who was briefed on the report, "The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the Department of Justice and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives. Was that actually true? The answer is no."
The Senate Intelligence Committee is slated to vote Thursday on whether to declassify the key findings and summary of the report. Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel to the ACLU in the Washington office, told Common Dreams that the report should be declassified and the CIA should not be given authority to redact information. "The only way we as a country can move beyond torture is to know what happened," he said.
_____________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
A classified Senate Intelligence Committee report charges that the Central Intelligence Agency lied to the U.S. public and government for years about its brutal interrogation techniques by hiding the extent of abuse and misleading about the lives this interrogation saves.
This is according to an exclusive Washington Post report published Tuesday. Citing anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the 6,300 page document, journalists Greg Miller, Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima write that the report shows "a long-standing pattern of unsubstantiated claims as agency officials sought permission to use -- and later tried to defend -- excruciating interrogation methods that yielded little, if any, significant intelligence."
Furthermore, the report details "damning new disclosures about a sprawling network of secret detention facilities, or 'black sites,' that was dismantled by President Obama in 2009," the authors note.
While the Senate Intelligence Committee report was completed over a year ago, it remains secret despite President Obama's previous pledge to declassify the report and widespread calls for its release to the public. Yet, Washington Post sources were able to paint a chilling portrait of its contents, which includes evidence of:
- Internal divisions and discomfort within the CIA about its secret interrogations program. In one case, CIA officials walked away from a secret prison in Thailand due to discomfort with interrogation techniques being used there. In some cases, "officials at CIA headquarters demanded the continued use of harsh interrogation techniques even after analysts were convinced that prisoners had no more information to give," notes the report.
- New revelations of torture, including the torture of detainee Ali Abdul Aziz Ali at a black site near Kabul, where he was repeatedly dunked in ice water tanks. "CIA interrogators forcibly kept his head under the water while he struggled to breathe and beat him repeatedly, hitting him with a truncheon-like object and smashing his head against a wall, officials said," according to the report. CIA interrogators continued the torture even after it was clear he was cooperating.
- False claims from CIA officials that "enhanced interrogation techniques" save thousands of lives. Said one anonymous official who was briefed on the report, "The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the Department of Justice and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives. Was that actually true? The answer is no."
The Senate Intelligence Committee is slated to vote Thursday on whether to declassify the key findings and summary of the report. Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel to the ACLU in the Washington office, told Common Dreams that the report should be declassified and the CIA should not be given authority to redact information. "The only way we as a country can move beyond torture is to know what happened," he said.
_____________________
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
A classified Senate Intelligence Committee report charges that the Central Intelligence Agency lied to the U.S. public and government for years about its brutal interrogation techniques by hiding the extent of abuse and misleading about the lives this interrogation saves.
This is according to an exclusive Washington Post report published Tuesday. Citing anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the 6,300 page document, journalists Greg Miller, Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima write that the report shows "a long-standing pattern of unsubstantiated claims as agency officials sought permission to use -- and later tried to defend -- excruciating interrogation methods that yielded little, if any, significant intelligence."
Furthermore, the report details "damning new disclosures about a sprawling network of secret detention facilities, or 'black sites,' that was dismantled by President Obama in 2009," the authors note.
While the Senate Intelligence Committee report was completed over a year ago, it remains secret despite President Obama's previous pledge to declassify the report and widespread calls for its release to the public. Yet, Washington Post sources were able to paint a chilling portrait of its contents, which includes evidence of:
- Internal divisions and discomfort within the CIA about its secret interrogations program. In one case, CIA officials walked away from a secret prison in Thailand due to discomfort with interrogation techniques being used there. In some cases, "officials at CIA headquarters demanded the continued use of harsh interrogation techniques even after analysts were convinced that prisoners had no more information to give," notes the report.
- New revelations of torture, including the torture of detainee Ali Abdul Aziz Ali at a black site near Kabul, where he was repeatedly dunked in ice water tanks. "CIA interrogators forcibly kept his head under the water while he struggled to breathe and beat him repeatedly, hitting him with a truncheon-like object and smashing his head against a wall, officials said," according to the report. CIA interrogators continued the torture even after it was clear he was cooperating.
- False claims from CIA officials that "enhanced interrogation techniques" save thousands of lives. Said one anonymous official who was briefed on the report, "The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the Department of Justice and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives. Was that actually true? The answer is no."
The Senate Intelligence Committee is slated to vote Thursday on whether to declassify the key findings and summary of the report. Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel to the ACLU in the Washington office, told Common Dreams that the report should be declassified and the CIA should not be given authority to redact information. "The only way we as a country can move beyond torture is to know what happened," he said.
_____________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy