Senate publish report on CIA torture and misinformation

December 10, 2014



A report released by the   yesterday concluded that the  misinformed the  and  about its imprisonment and interrogation of suspected terrorists during the years after the.

The committee released an executive summary yesterday ahead of its full 6,000-page report. The summary documented instances where detainees were kept awake for as long as a week and suggested that the agency had waterboarded more suspects than it previously disclosed.

The report also revealed that officials in the were often told about these practices long after the fact. Defense Secretary and Secretary of State  were not told of the CIA's operations until a year after they had begun. President was briefed in 2006, four years after the CIA commenced its "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" program.

The released documents refutes the effectiveness of the program and the accuracy of the information gathered. Previously, the Bush administration had defended its use, claiming that the intelligence garnered helped stop terrorist plots and capture leadership, including. The executive summary examines case studies from the CIA's internal records which the committee says disputes those defenses.

Director acknowledged many of the failures outlined by the committee, but also rebuked it for what he called an “incomplete and selective picture of what occurred.” Republican Senators have been critical of the report with  calling it "a fiction", and  stating that Senate Democrats published the report out of "partisan joy" with the intention of "trying to embarrass people in the Bush administration."