12-10-2014, 04:53 PM
Bush was not briefed during the first four years of the program, but Vice President Dick Cheney was.
A CIA email from 2003 said "the White House is extremely concerned [Secretary of State Colin] Powell would blow his stack if he were to be briefed" about the details of the program.
The report says the CIA paid two psychologists more than $80 million to come up with torture methods. In the report's executive summary, the programs developed by the CIA and these two contractors are described as "brutal" and "in violation of U.S. law, treaty obligations, and our values."
Additionally, the report found the agency paid millions of dollars, in cash, to foreign governments to get them to host "black sites" where interrogations were held (two of which were not used because of political concerns about the host countries). The report says one country paid by the CIA torture program was told that the black site was serving a different purpose entirely.
Torture programs described in the report include "rectal feeding," sleep deprivation, insects, use of diapers, and mock executions. According to the report, "rectal hydration" was used as a means of "behavior control."
The CIA accidentally tortured two of its informants.
CIA forced detainees to wear diapers "to cause humiliation" and "induce a sense of helplessness." Learned helplessness is used to coerce the prisoner's cooperation in terms of confessions, many of which later turn out to be false.
The report repeatedly questions the quality of the information obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques. It found at least 26 people were wrongly detained as part of the program. One detainee was recommended for release because he was given to the CIA under false pretenses. Instead, the CIA transferred the detainee to US custody for another four years.
The report noted detainees who were tortured "provided fabricated information on critical intelligence issues."
According to the report, CIA officials, including the agency's former director, Michael Hayden, repeatedly lied about details of the program. The report describes instances of the CIA misleading the Department of Justice, a US Senate committee, and the media about the usage and effectiveness of enhanced interrogation techniques. It says that the CIA attempted to manipulate press coverage of the program. Hayden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the report.
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