The Surprising CIA Torture Report - Declassified

The Surprising CIA Torture Report - Declassified

by Antoine Bourgade and Thomas Laissy

In December 2014 the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report describing the CIA’s 13-year-long effort to counter terrorism.

 Water-boarding, sleep deprivation, rectal infusion…

Since the 09/11 attacks, many US government organizations have tried to improve their counter-terrorism programs. To track down and eliminate relevant threats to national security, the CIA used undercover actions and nobody really realized how far they went until now. And without the declassification of the report by the Senate, nobody would have ever known. But there are still some shadowy areas: certain places and names are illegible because they have been redacted from the report.

This report presents evidence that the US government, and particularly the CIA, used brutal and possibly illegal interrogation techniques on detainees. The document describes some of the techniques used by the CIA interrogators, which are often well known because they appear in movies and books: waterboarding, sleep deprivation, rectal infusion, keeping detainees naked and chained, or making them face walls for hours. For CIA director John Brennan “these interrogations helped thwart attack plans and capture terrorists” but he grants that “the Agency made mistakes”.

Most significantly, many Senate Democrats conclude that the program was ineffective and improperly used. Many people still agree that the CIA had to use these interrogation techniques, even if they were cruel. But instead of helping national security and tracking down terrorists, they in fact damaged the reputation of the US government. President Barack Obama added that “the techniques did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners.”

If you want to know more about it you can find this report online -- but be forewarned, it’s not for the squeamish!

Source :

http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2014/12/10/d-anciens-espions-repondent-aux-accusations-de-torture-contre-la-cia_4537642_3222.html

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/amerique/mensonge-et-brutalite-les-methodes-post-11-septembre-de-la-cia-en-accusation_1630796.html

http://www.ouest-france.fr/tortures-la-cia-quelles-techniques-sont-denoncees-dans-le-rapport-3038790

http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2014/12/09/les-vingt-conclusions-du-rapport-sur-les-tortures-menees-par-la-cia_4537615_3222.html