December 10, 2014

CIA unclassified

editor:	Neelo Aysha Scholz

A milestone report on the CIA’s post 9/11 torture program was released on Tuesday, revealing the US government agency’s unquestioning use of torture to be not only brutal but also embarrassing in its ineffectiveness.

The Senate intelligence committee’s report showed how the CIA exhibited a dogged determination to continue its inhumane detention and interrogation program despite evidence of its futility. Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the committee spoke of how counter- productive torture had proven to be, with it regularly resulting in fabricated information. The investigation found the CIA lying repeatedly about the usefulness of its brutal activities and that torturing did not lead to finding Osama bin Laden in 2011.

It also revealed the torture to have been even more extreme than what it portrayed to the George W Bush administration and went beyond techniques made public in the last decade, including anal rehydration and feeding, water boarding and mock executions.

The Senate committee released its findings amidst a backlash from Republicans warning a “danger to US citizens everywhere” if it were made unclassified. An ex-head of CIA admonished betraying the confidence of the 56 countries who were complicit in its activities. Thailand, Morocco and Lithuania were amongst the nine to have hosted secret CIA prisons.