Vol. 73/No. 34      September 7, 2009

The “Special Review” by the CIA Inspector General titled “Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities (September 2001-October 2003),” was issued in May 2004. It was released under a court order in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Dozens of pages of the 109-page report are blacked out. While the table of contents lists 12 “specific unauthorized or undocumented techniques” including “threats,” “stress positions,” “mock executions,” and “hard takedown,” what are apparently another 10 types of torture are also blacked out.

Among the described incidents:

• In June 2003 an Afghan citizen who turned himself in to U.S. soldiers at a joint U.S. Army-CIA base in northeast Afghanistan was severely beaten with a large metal flashlight and kicked by a CIA contractor. He died in custody.
• In July 2003 a CIA officer rifle-butted a teacher at a religious school and kicked him in front of 200 students, supposedly because the teacher “smiled and laughed inappropriately.”
• Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, accused of involvement in 9/11, was waterboarded 183 times in one month. Interrogators also threatened to kill his children “if anything else happens in the United States.”

The report describes lifting a prisoner off the floor by his arms which were bound behind his back. Another prisoner’s carotid artery was repeatedly squeezed until he began to pass out. A CIA agent implied that he would rape prisoner Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri’s mother in front of him. A mock execution was also staged to force al-Nashiri to talk. The report describes depriving an inmate of sleep for 180 hours.

The review spelled out what the CIA considered to be acceptable interrogation methods, which include: sleep deprivation not to exceed 72 hours, reduced caloric intake, use of loud music, forced wearing of diapers for up to 72 hours, and waterboarding. “These techniques include, but are not limited to,” the report states, “all lawful forms of questioning employed by U.S. law enforcement and military interrogation personnel.”

At the same time the CIA made public two other previously secret documents. Those documents assert that information obtained from the “capture and debriefing of HVDs (high value detainees)” is a “crucial pillar of U.S. counterterrorism.”

After the report’s release, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he had appointed John Durham as special prosecutor to recommend if there should be a “full investigation” into whether “federal laws” were violated.

Holder said that the “preliminary review” by Durham was not a criticism of “our intelligence community.” He said CIA agents “deserve our respect and gratitude for the work they do.”

A White House statement reinforced Holder’s position saying, “The President has said repeatedly that he wants to look forward, not back … those who acted in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance should not be prosecuted.”

“Responsibility for the torture program cannot be laid at the feet of a few low-level operatives,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said August 24. “It is the lawyers and the officials who oversaw and approved the program who must be investigated.” The center has helped win the release of secret documents related to the U.S. torture program.
 
 
Related articles:
Afghan vote highlights limits of U.S. war
Washington, Islamabad deal blows to Pakistani Taliban
U.S. ‘capture and kill’ unit to stay in Philippines
Australia ‘terror’ case used to restrict rights  
 
 
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