Horror Exposed

Officials lied for years about CIA torture.

In 2007, Michael Hayden, then the director of the CIA, told a roomful of human rights advocates that “fewer than 100 people” had been held at secret sites run by his agency.

And he dismissed reports that the CIA used waterboarding, stress positions and hypothermia, among other abusive tactics, to interrogate suspects. “That’s a pretty good example of taking something to the darkest corner of the room and not reflective of what my agency does,” Hayden said during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

In fact, 119 people were held in black site facilities around the world – roughly 20% more than Hayden claimed publicly. Their identities are revealed for the first time in Tuesday’s report. One man likely died because he was exposed to cold temperatures for a long period of time. Moreover, more than 20% of those detained were wrongfully held. “Detainees often remained in custody for months after the CIA determined they should not have been detained,” the report said.

It has been known publicly, through reporting and previously released documents, that three detainees were subjected to waterboarding, among them Khaled Sheikh Mohamed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who was waterboarded at least 183 times. But the committee found new photographic evidence suggesting others may have faced the same abuse as well. In addition to that outlawed practice – which constitutes cruel and inhuman treatment – the CIA, the report said, used additional aggressive and brutal measures “immediately, in combination and nonstop.” Some have not been revealed before Tuesday.

Those include: “Sleep deprivation involving keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in painful positions, sometimes with their hands shackled above their heads.” Detainees who were dragged naked up and down corridors while being beaten. Rectal feeding and hydration were forced without medical need to coerce and abuse detainees.

According to the CIA’s own records, the report found, one detainee’s lunch tray, “consisting of hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins was “pureed” and rectally infused.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said the CIA should be “decorated, not criticized” for the program that oversaw the detention, interrogation and kidnapping of detainees. It was a program that operated in secret, without any oversight from the judiciary, from 2001 to 2006.

Despite such claims, it turns out the CIA had actually attempted to bring at least two individuals to account for actions taken under the torture programs. In each case, including the death of one detainee and the wrongful detention of another, senior CIA leadership intervened to prevent any accountability. Why? Because “the Director believes that mistakes should be expected in a business filled with uncertainty,” according to CIA records.

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