The CIA Torture Report: What You Need To Know

Over the objections of the CIA, the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released the findings of a long-awaited report on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, in which it subjected detainees to practices widely criticized as torture — what it called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The agency has argued that even if the tactics were harsh, they were necessary. They helped to track down Osama bin Laden, the agency said, and the CIA even helped to underscore that idea by consulting on the Hollywood blockbuster Zero Dark Thirty.
The exhaustive Senate report — the executive summary alone runs 500 pages — found that the program instead violated “U.S. law, treaty obligations, and our values.” It was ineffective, the report found, and in some cases detrimental to national security, a fact the CIA worked to conceal from government agencies, the White House, lawmakers and the public. And it didn’t help to find bin Laden.
The CIA, in a response posted to its website, acknowledged “shortcomings” in its interrogation program, and said that the agency had made “mistakes.” But it maintained that the program had been effective and that the CIA hadn’t “systematically and intentionally misled” officials or the public.