Senate Report Calls CIA Interrogation Tactics Ineffective - Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—A three-year Senate investigation into the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation program concluded that its techniques were not effective, reigniting an intense debate over the George W. Bush -era counterterrorism program.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) released  the report Tuesday morning, culminating an investigation that began more than five years ago.  “This document examines the CIA’s secret detention of at least 119 individuals and the use of coercive interrogation techniques—in some cases amounting to torture,” she said.

According to a summary provided by Ms. Feinstein, the report cites 20 findings and conclusions, including that the CIA provided inaccurate information to policy makers and the public, its management of the program was “deeply flawed” and the program was “far more brutal” than the CIA publicly acknowledged.
The report includes several details not previously known, including the true number of detainees—119—and that CIA lost track of some of them; that one detainee lost consciousness when being waterboarded, a fact not reported to headquarters; and that at least one detainee was chained to a wall for more than two weeks straight.

The broad outlines of the report, in particular its focus on the effectiveness of the program, have long been debated. But the release of the much anticipated report, and the fresh details it contained, were set to renew the battle between Senate Democrats and the CIA over the CIA’s legacy and how the history of the program will be written.

The conclusion of the agency’s ineffectiveness is what the CIA disputes most forcefully.

At the CIA on Tuesday, Director John Brennan acknowledged mistakes but disputed the core argument of the report—that the program wasn’t effective.

“We did not always live up to the high standards that we set for ourselves and that the American people expect of us. As an agency, we have learned from these mistakes, which is why my predecessors and I have implemented various remedial measures over the years to address institutional deficiencies,” he said. But, he said, the techniques “did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives.”

In the CIA’s formal response to the report, which it submitted in June 2013, the agency faulted the report. “There are too many flaws for it to stand as the official record of the program,” it wrote. “The sum total of information provided from detainees in CIA custody substantially advanced the agency’s strategic and tactical understanding of the enemy in ways that continue to inform counterterrorism efforts to this day.”

The Justice Department approved 10 proposed interrogation methods by the CIA, including waterboarding, a technique many people, including President Barack Obama , have called torture.

After the report was released, Mr. Obama called details within it “troubling” and vowed that the U.S. would never resort to those tactics on his watch..  “These techniques did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners. That is why I will continue to use my authority as president to make sure we never resort to those methods again,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.  Read More  at WSJ

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