A Senate Intelligence Committee report, released Tuesday, called the CIA's interrogation of terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001, more brutal than it acknowledged to the White House or to the public.
The explosive report indicated interrogations during the George W. Bush era were not effectiveand little information to prevent the attack on World Trade Center was obtained. The majority report of the committee said CIA tactics were "deeply flawed." The report took five years to assemble and involved over six million internal CIA documents, and concludes the CIA routinely misled the White House and Congress about information it obtained from interrogation suspects.
Only 524 pages of the 6,000-page final report were declassified and released Tuesday. In the foreword, Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., noted that she could understand the CIA's "impulse to consider the use of every possible tool to gather intelligence."
"Nevertheless, such pressure, fear and expectation of further terrorist plots do not justify, temper or excuse improper actions taken by individuals or organizations in the name of national security. The major lesson of this report is that regardless of the pressures and the need to act, the intelligence community's actions must always reflect who we are as a nation, and adhere to our laws and standards."
The report explains, in graphic detail, techniques the CIA used to torture imprisoned terrorist suspects, and suggests more suspects endured waterboarding than the three acknowledged by the CIA.
The CIA is preparing its own study of its program, and committee Republicans are expected to submit a rebuttal. Prior to the report's release, Congressional Republicans said the report would smear the CIA and the Bush White House with out-of-context information.
