Capitol Report: Senate Democrats release CIA torture report
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said detainees were tortured.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) Senate Democrats on Tuesday released a report detailing the torture of 119 individuals who were held in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The report said that CIA personnel, aided by two outside contractors, decided to start a program of indefinite secret detention and the use of brutal interrogation techniques.
It is my personal conclusion that, under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat of California, in a statement accompanying the report.
I also believe that the conditions of confinement and the use of authorized and unauthorized interrogation and conditioning techniques were cruel, inhuman and degrading, Feinstein said.
In a statement on the Senate floor, Feinstein said that the detention program was run by surprisingly few people.
The report is a 600-page summary of a 6,700 page study that remains classified. It roots come from an investigation into the CIAs destruction of videotapes of detainee interrogations that began in December 2007.
Not only is [torture] wrong, it doesnt work. It got us nothing but a bad name, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a brief statement on the Senate floor.
In a statement, President Barack Obama said the report reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests.
Feinstein said she considered delaying the report due to instability in the Middle East, but said that she concluded that turmoil was likely to last for years.
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Capitol Report: Senate Democrats release CIA torture report