The redacted summary of the senate report on torture describes horrific, macabre crimes. Below are some of the worst. People need to be held accountable for these abuses from the lowest CIA agent who carried them out to the president of the United States who admitted torture in his presidential biography. Thus far the only person imprisoned for the torture program has been John Kiriakou who exposed the torture program and who said “I believe I was prosecuted not for what I did but for who I am: a CIA officer who said torture was wrong and ineffective and went against the grain.” Kiriakou remains imprisoned. KZ
Here Are The Most Horrific Details From The Senate Torture Report
On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released the long-awaited summary of its torture report, revealing horrific details about the CIA’s post-9/11 detention and interrogation program.
Many of the details in the report are sickening and graphic. They are perhaps made only more disturbing by the overarching conclusion that the torture and “enhanced interrogation” employed by the CIA failed to produce the types of significant intelligence that had been used to defend the program in the past.
You can go here to read the unsealed summary of the report, including a section on initial findings and hundreds of pages of declassified documents. Below is a compilation of some of the most abhorrent details from it.
Detainees were subjected to “rectal feeding,” a process by which food or nutrients are pumped in through the anus…
[Page 115]
… even when there was no demonstrated medical need for it.
[Page 82]
Detainees were told they would never leave these “black sites” and that their families would be sexually assaulted or murdered.
[Page 4 of findings]
One never did. He died of suspected hypothermia after being tortured at one of the covert facilities.
[Page 10 of summary]
During an extended period of stress, an interrogator operated a power drill near a detainee.
[Page 69]
Detainees were waterboarded until they turned blue…
[Page 107]
… and were on the verge of drowning.
[Page 86]
Forced nudity was regularly used as an interrogation technique.
[Page 79]
After this brutal regimen of torture, detainees often gave false information, which the U.S. acted on.
[Page 83]
One detainee, a Saudi Arabian citizen who is still being held at Guantanamo Bay and was one of the first detainees held during the torture program, faced 20 days of nonstop “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
[Page 40]
This included extended periods of isolation and confinement in a coffin-sized box.
[Page 42]
At one black site, groups of detainees were regularly stripped, beaten, hooded and bound with tape.
[Page 4 of summary]
Detainees were subjected to seemingly unimaginable periods of sleep deprivation, in conjunction with other forms of torture.
[Page 149]
Sleep deprivation often led to disturbing hallucinations.
[Page 16]
Detainees were also refused access to toilets, put in diapers and left hanging by their wrists in cells for extended periods of time.
[Page 53]
Others were forced to maintain “stress positions” even on broken limbs and though medical personnel had advised against it.
[Page 101]
An interrogator reportedly played Russian roulette with a detainee.
[Page 424]
The CIA detained individuals who did not meet its outlined detention standard, and they were used to extract information from family members. This included at least one “intellectually challenged” individual.
[Page 12 of summary]
Some mistakenly held detainees were subjected to prolonged periods of torture before being released.
[Page 42]
Many CIA officials were disturbed by the techniques and torture they witnessed at these sites.
[Page 44]
Ashley Alman, Mollie Reilly and Paige Lavender contributed reporting.