motherjones | On Tuesday morning, the Senate intelligence committee
released an executive summary of its years-long investigation into the
CIA's detention and interrogation program. President George W. Bush
authorized the so-called "enhanced interrogation" program after the 9/11
attacks. The United States government this week has warned personnel in
facilities abroad, including US embassies, to be ready in case protests
erupt in response.
The full report includes over 6,000 pages and 35,000 footnotes. You can read the executive summary here. Here are some of the lowlights:
1. The CIA used previously unreported tactics, including "rectal feeding" of detainees (p. 100, footnote 584):
2. CIA officers threatened the children of detainees (p. 4):
3. Over 20 percent of CIA detainees were "wrongfully held." One was an "intellectually challenged" man who was held so the CIA could get leverage over his family (p. 12):
4. One detainee, Abu Hudhaifa, was subjected to "ice water baths" and "66 hours of standing sleep deprivation" before being released because the CIA realized it probably had the wrong man (p. 16, footnote 32):
5. The CIA, contrary to what it told Congress, began torturing detainees before even determining whether they would cooperate (p. 104):
6. CIA officers began torturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "a few minutes" after beginning to question him (p. 108):
7. The CIA planned to detain KSM incommunicado for the rest of his life, without charge or trial (p. 9):
8. During waterboarding sessions, KSM made up a story that Al Qaeda was trying to recruit African-American Muslims…in Montana (p. 118):
