A leak of the major findings of a landmark Senate inquiry into the CIA's post-9/11 torture of terrorism detainees appears to show that the CIA systematically misled Congress, the White House, and the Department of Justice about a brutal and unlawful interrogation program. The classified study, prepared by the Senate select committee on intelligence, concluded that the CIA's interrogations, secret detentions and torture sessions were far worse than the agency communicated to policymakers. More suspected terrorists underwent the agency's post-9/11 treatment, which lasted from 2002 to 2006, than the CIA has publicly admitted, according to the report's findings, which were reported by McClatchy. One hundred detainees, dozens more than previously known, went through the CIA's so-called “interrogation, detention and rendition” programs. In addition to misleading policymakers and also providing factually inaccurate information to Bush administration lawyers, the Senate report charges the CIA with selectively leaking classified and inaccurate information to journalists in order to portray the program in a positive light. The report also concluded that the CIA used interrogation methods that were not approved by its own headquarters or the US Justice Department, impeded White House oversight and actively evaded oversight both by Congress and its own inspector general. The CIA also provided false information to the US Justice Department, which used that information to conclude that the methods would not break the law because those applying them did not specifically intend to inflict severe pain or suffering. It is these concoctions of legal theories that underpinned a system of torture interrogations and detentions which spread to US military facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan. A conflict of interest looms as the CIA will lead the executive branch panel that will recommend how much of the Senate report's executive summary, findings and recommendations to make public. How does it make sense for President Obama to allow the CIA to take charge of declassifying a report that shows unlawful and embarrassing conduct on its part? Declassification presents a key test for Obama who should order the White House - not the CIA - to decide on the redactions. Once the White House and CIA finish the declassification process, the report will give the world its first official look at the regimen of interrogation and detentions in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks when George W. Bush was president. The CIA should not be allowed to hide its use of torture or tell lies to keep the torture program going. The decision to embrace torture rested on the assertion that waterboarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions and other abuses were effective in gaining intelligence necessary to save American lives. The report, however, appears to show that assertion to be false. Interrogation techniques did not help track down Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden or others suspected of terrorism. The State Department has warned that making the report public could endanger the lives of American diplomats and citizens overseas and jeopardize US relations with other countries. But the American people, and the rest of the world for that matter, will see that much of what CIA officials have said about the effectiveness of coercive interrogations was simply untrue. The broad public needs and deserves a full account of the actions that were taken in the name of US citizens through the use of torture and enhanced interrogations on detainees. The report must be declassified so that all can understand what happened and how it can be prevented.
