CIA’s torture of detainees called brutal

KABUL (Pajhwok): The US Senate on Tuesday accused the CIA of using brutal but ineffective techniques in interrogating detainees during the Bush administration.

CIA’s secret questioning of al Qaeda detainees and other prisoners in secret detention facilities in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania, Thailand and other countries continued from 2002 to 2006.

The harsh techniques the spy service used on detainees after the 9/11 attacks had been in effective, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said in an explosive report.  

One of the techniques was sleep deprivation that involved keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in painful stress positions, at times with their hands shackled above their heads.

According to what looks a damning indictment of the CIA, al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah became completely unresponsive after a period of intense water-boarding so much so that he had bubbles rising through his mouth.

One detainee reportedly died of hypothermia after being held partially nude and tied to a concrete floor. On occasions, naked inmates were hooded, slapped and dragged up and down corridors.

It claimed the tough methods, which were deeply flawed, poorly managed and often resulted in fabricated information, delivered no valuable information that foiled an attack,

But the spy service insisted the programme had been effective and helped its understanding of al Qaeda’s tactical operations. It claimed the conclusions contained too many flaws for it to stand as official record of the programme.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama acknowledged the alleged techniques had damaged American interests abroad without substantially serving counterterrorism efforts.

In a statement, the president said: “Rather than another reason to refight old arguments, I hope that today’s report can help us leave these techniques where they belong, in the past.”

PAN Monitor/mud

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