We’ve never seen anything like it. Reporters almost ran out of adjectives for the kinds of torture carried out by the CIA, as described in the Senate Intelligence Committee report released this week. Their actions were called disgusting, degrading, despicable, sick, satanic, hedonistic, horrific, evil, sadistic and sadomasochist – all of which applied. And that was just for starters.
As graphically detailed in the report, what were euphemistically called “harsh interrogation techniques” carried out by the CIA included: Some detainees were waterboarded until they turned blue and were on the verge of drowning; many were regularly stripped, beaten, hooded and bound with tape; others were deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours straight; several were put in diapers and left hanging by their wrists for extended periods of time, unable to reach the floor and with no access to toilets; prisoners were told their families would be sexually assaulted or murdered; at least two detainees were subjected to forced rectal feeding and rectal hydration. And all of this was carried out by agents of the U.S. government. Sick, evil, sadistic, indeed.
In releasing this report, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee performed a great public service. We all knew the CIA had practiced torture after September 11. Until reading their report, however, we had no idea how widespread and brutal it really was. Gruesome details of the techniques used shocked an entire nation.
But that’s not the only bombshell revelation of the report. As shocking as the accounts of CIA torture are the multiple examples of lies they repeatedly told. Based on millions of documents investigated by committee staff, the Senate report concludes that the CIA lied to the White House, Congress, the Justice Department and the American people. They lied to everybody about everything. Again, the report is very specific.
In congressional testimony and in interviews, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and former CIA Directors George Tenet and Michael Hayden, among others, all uttered some version of “We do not torture.” That’s a lie. We did. And in the worst possible way.
The CIA said a total of 98 prisoners were held in secret prisons, or “black sites,” by the CIA. That’s a lie. Actually, there were 119 prisoners, but former Director Hayden gave orders to keep the official number below 100. Twenty-six of the 119 were wrongfully held.
The CIA said only three detainees were subjected to the harshest treatments, including waterboarding. That’s a lie. Thirty-nine detainees were. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. CIA staffers who agreed to waterboard were paid $1,800 a day, four times what others were paid.
They said nobody died. That’s a lie. At least two prisoners died of hypothermia, after being left partially naked and chained to the floor.
And the CIA is still lying. Director John Brennan insists, yet today, that intelligence gained through torturing detainees allowed the agency to prevent 21 terrorist attacks and led to the capture of Osama bin Laden. Intelligence Committee staff investigated every one of those claims. Not one of them proved to be true. Hassan Ghul, before he was tortured, actually provided all the information that led the CIA to bin Laden’s courier.
Now the most shocking part of the report: Despite all the torture, all the crimes and all the lies, it looks like no one will be held responsible, even though many of those who conducted torture sessions still work at the CIA and those who gave the orders are still easily accessible. In fact, the only person prosecuted so far in the torture scandal is whistleblower John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent now serving 30 months in federal prison for being the first to publicly acknowledge the existence of the torture program.
In the end, the decision not to prosecute rests with President Obama. The Justice Department, which conducted an early investigation into CIA activities and found no grounds for prosecution, says it has no plans to take a “fresh look” in light of new information contained in the Senate report. They’re looking the other way. And so is President Obama.
That means no accountability for George Bush, Dick Cheney, George Tenet, Michael Hayden, or anyone else connected with the CIA’s vast, secret torture program. And the United States stands as a nation that preaches human rights to other countries, but allows its own agents to trample on human rights – and does nothing about it.
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