Rectal rehydration and standing on broken limbs: the CIA torture report's grisliest findings Outbackjack: Guardian Parts of the CIA interrogation program were known, but the catalogue of abuse is nightmarish, especially knowing much more will never be revealed. The full horror of the CIA interrogation and detention programmes launched in the wake of the September 11 terror attack was laid bare in the long-awaited Senate report released on Tuesday. While parts of the programme had been known – and much more will never be revealed – the catalogue of abuse is nightmarish and reads like something invented by the Marquis de Sade or Hieronymous Bosch. Detainees were forced to stand on broken limbs for hours, kept in complete darkness, deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours, sometimes standing, sometimes with their arms shackled above their heads. Prisoners were subjected to “rectal feeding” without medical necessity. Rectal exams were conducted with “excessive force”. The report highlights one prisoner later diagnosed with anal fissures, chronic hemorrhoids and “symptomatic rectal prolapse”. The report mentions mock executions, Russian roulette. US agents threatened to slit the throat of a detainee’s mother, sexually abuse another and threatened prisoners’ children. One prisoner died of hypothermia brought on in part by being forced to sit on a bare concrete floor without pants. Outbackjack: The dungeon The CIA began the establishment of a specialised detention centre, codenamed DETENTION SITE COBALT, in April 2002. Although its location is not identified in the report it has been widely identified as being in Afghanistan. Conditions at the site were described in the report as poor “and were especially bleak early in the program”. The CIA chief of interrogations described COBALT as “a dungeon”. There were 20 cells, with blacked-out windows. Detainees were “kept in complete darkness and constantly shackled in isolated cells with loud music and only a bucket to use for human waste”. It was cold, something the report says likely contributed to the death of a detainee. Prisoners were walked around naked or were shackled with their hands above their heads for extended periods of time. About five CIA officers would engage in what is described as a “rough takedown”. A detainee would be shouted at, have his clothes cut off, be secured with tape, hooded and dragged up and down a long corridor while being slapped and punched. A CIA photograph shows a waterboard at the site, surrounded by buckets and a bottle of an unknown pink solution and a watering can resting on the beams of the waterboard. The CIA failed to provide a detailed explanation of the items in the photograph. Frozen to death Gul Rahman Gul Rahman died in the early hours of 20 November 2002, after being shackled to a cold concrete wall in a secret CIA prison. Photograph: AP At COBALT, the CIA interrogated in 2002 Gul Rahman, described as a suspected Islamic extremist. He was subjected to “48 hours of sleep deprivation, auditory overload, total darkness, isolation, a cold shower and rough treatment”. CIA headquarters suggested “enhanced measures” might be needed to get him to comply. A CIA officer at COBALT ordered Rahman be “shackled to the wall of his cell in a position that required the detainee to rest on the bare concrete floor”. He was only wearing a sweatshirt as a CIA officer has ordered his clothes to be removed earlier after judging him to be uncooperative during an interrogation. The next day, guards found Rahman dead. An internal CIA review and autopsy assessed he likely died from hypothermia – “in part from having been forced to sit on the bare concrete floor without pants”. An initial CIA review and cable sent to CIA headquarters after his death included a number of misstatements and omissions. Shackled to the wall Advertisement The CIA in the first half of 2003 interrogated four detainees described as having “medical complications in their lower extremities”: two had a broken foot, one had a sprained ankle and one a prosthetic leg. CIA officers shackled each of them in a standing position for sleep deprivation for extended periods until medical staff assessed they could no longer maintain that position. “The two detainees that each had a broken foot were also subjected to walling, stress positions and cramped confinement, despite the note in their interrogation plans that these specific enhanced interrogation techniques were not requested because of the medical condition of the detainees,” the report says. ‘Rectal feeding’ CIA operatives subjected at least five detainees to what they called “rectal rehydration and feeding”. One CIA cable released in the report reveals that detainee Majid Khan was administered by enema his “‘lunch tray’ consisting of hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins was ‘pureed and rectally infused’”. One CIA officer’s email was in the report quoted as saying “we used the largest Ewal [sic] tube we had”. Rectal feeding is of limited application in actually keeping a person alive or administering nutrients, since the colon and rectum cannot absorb much besides salt, glucose and a few minerals and vitamins. The CIA administered rectal rehydration to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “without a determination of medical need” and justified “rectal fluid resuscitation” of Abu Zubaydah because he “partially refus[ed] liquids”. Al-Nashiri was given an enema after a brief hunger strike. Risks of rectal feeding and rehydration include damage to the rectum and colon, triggering bowels to empty, food rotting inside the recipient’s digestive tract, and an inflamed or prolapsed rectum from carless insertion of the feeding tube. The report found that CIA leadership was notified that rectal exams may have been conducted with “Excessive force”, and that one of the detainees, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, suffered from an anal fissure, chronic hemorrhoids and symptomatic rectal prolapse. The CIA’s chief of interrogations characterized rectal rehydration as a method of “total control” over detainees, and an unnamed person said the procedure helped to “clear a person’s head”. Waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah and KSM The report suggests Abu Zubaydah was a broken man after his extensive interrogations. In CIA documents he is described as having become so compliant that “when the interrogator raised his eyebrows” he would walk to the “water table” and sit down. The interrogator only had to snap his fingers twice for Abu Zabaydah to lie down, ready for water-boarding, the report says. “At times Abu Zubaydah was described as ‘hysterical’ and ‘distressed to the level that he was unable effectively to communicate’. Waterboarding sessions ‘resulted in immediate fluid intake and involuntary leg, chest and arm spasms’ and ‘hysterical pleas’. In at least one waterboarding session, Abu Zubaydah ‘became completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth’ ... Abu Zubaydah remained unresponsive until medical intervention, when he regained consciousness and ‘expelled copious amounts of liquid’.” The CIA doctor overseeing the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said that the prisoner was ingesting so much water that he or she was no longer concerned that regurgitated gastric acid was likely to damage his oesophagus. But, the doctor warned, the CIA should start using saline, because his electrolytes were becoming too diluted. The forgotten man chained to a wall One CIA interrogator at COBALT reported that “‘literally, a detainee could go for days or weeks without anyone looking at him’, and that his team found one detainee who ‘as far as we could determine’, had been chained to a wall in a standing position for 17 days’.’ Some prisoners were said to be like dogs in kennels: “When the doors to their cells were pened, ‘they cowered.’” In April 2006, during a CIA briefing, President George W Bush, expressed discomfort at the “image of a detainee, chained to the ceiling, clothed in a diaper, and forced to go to the bathroom on himself”. This man is thought to be Ridha al-Najjar, who was forced to spend 22 hours each day with one or both wrists chained to an overhead bar, for two consecutive days, while wearing a diaper. His incarceration was concealed from the International Committee of the Red Cross. Sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation involved keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in stress positions, at times with their hands shackled above their heads. At least five detainees experienced disturbing hallucinations during prolonged sleep deprivation and, in at least two of those cases, the CIA nonetheless continued the sleep deprivation.” One of the prisoners forced to say awake for seven-and-a-half days was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Most of this time he was forced to stand. The report says that former CIS director Michael Hayden was aware that Mohammed had been deprived of sleep for this period. Outbackjack: CIA lied to officials The White House, National Security Council (NSC) and others were given “extensive amounts of inaccurate and incomplete information” related to the operation and effectiveness of the CIA’s detention and interrogation programme. No CIA officer briefed the president on the specific CIA enhanced interrogation techniques before April 2006. The CIA did not inform two secretaries of state of the locations of CIA detention facilities, despite the foreign policy implications and the fact that the political leaders of host countries were generally informed of their existence. FBI director Robert Mueller was denied access to CIA detainees that the FBI believed was necessary to understand domestic threats. The White House kept key members of its team in the dark At the direction of the White House, the secretaries of state and defence – both principals on the National Security Council – were not briefed on the programme’s specifics until September 2003. An internal CIA email from July 2003 noted that the White House was “extremely concerned” that secretary of state Colin Powell “would blow his stack if he were to be briefed on what’s been going on.” Wrongfully detained Among its findings, the report says that: “The CIA did not conduct a comprehensive or accurate accounting of the number of individuals it detained, and held individuals who did not meet its own legal standard for detention.” The CIA acknowledged to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) in February 2006 that it had wrongly detained five individuals throughout the course of its detention programme. The report’s review of CIA records indicates that at least 21 additional individuals, or a total of 26 of the 119 (22%), of detainees identified did not meet the CIA’s standard for detention. The report calls the number “a conservative calculation” and notes it does not include “individuals about whom there was internal disagreement within the CIA over whether the detainee met the standard or not, or the numerous detainees who, following their detention and interrogation, were found not to ‘pose a continuing threat of violence or death to US persons and interests’ or to be ‘planning terrorist activities’. With one exception, the reports says there are no CIA records that indicate that anyone was held accountable for “the detention of individuals the CIA itself determined were wrongfully detained.” CIA misled the press The CIA gave inaccurate information to journalists in background briefings to mislead the public about the efficacy of its interrogation programme, the report reveals. “In seeking to shape press reporting … CIA officers and the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) provided unattributed background information on the program to journalists for books, articles and broadcasts, including when the existence of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program was still classified,” the report said. It also added that when this still-classified information was published, the CIA did not, as a matter of policy, submit crime reports – highlighting a gulf between officially sanctioned leaks and non-sanctioned whistleblowing, the latter of which is often heavily prosecuted. The report refers to Ronald Kessler’s book The CIA At War. An unidentified party at the CIA – the name and office is redacted – decided not to open an investigation into the publication of classified information by Kiessler “because ‘OPA provided assistance with the book.’” An article by Douglas Jehl in the New York Times also contained “significant classified information,” which was also not investigated because it was based on information provided by the CIA. Both the book and the article, the report continues, contained inaccurate information about the effectiveness of CIA interrogation programs, and untrue accounts of interrogations. Many of the inaccuracies the CIA fed to journalists, the report says, were consistent with inaccurate information being provided by the agency to policymakers at the time. • This article was amended on 10 December 2014. Colin Powell was secretary of state in the Bush administration, not defence secretary as an earlier version said  chronology: Jack, yes all this is highly regrettable. But when CIA Officers are having their throats cut in snuff videos posted on YouTube, and Iraqi Police Officers are having their heads cut off and placed on their chests and left in the street, and people like Ken Bigley are being beheaded in back street dungeons, I think you will agree this kind of terrorism creates an culture where such regrettable incidents occur.  Geoff: When a terrorist does something like that, it is because that is what terrorists do, they cause terror. When a government agency does it, knowing it is in direct violation of national and international law, as well as common morality and decency; what does it become then? It becomes a crime. One should never let pragmatism convince you ignore the difference between right and wrong. chronology: I recall the old comment; 'I doubt if a Chap who fought by the Queensbury Rules would last too long in a street fight with a ruffian'. Geoff: There is a difference between fighting to defend yourself and being less than honourable in doing so, and a government agency directly, determinedly and repeatedly violating some of the deepest held beliefs of their nation. chronology: Joseph Conrad made a good point in 'Heart of Darkness' where he stated it is easy for us who sleep in our beds each night and walk on paved sidewalks and drink our coffee in coffee shops to moralise about those who are labouring in the darker places of the world. There are still many 'Hearts of Darkness' in the world, the C.I.A. seems to be criticised like Mr Kurts was in his 'Forward Station' . Geoff: Do you really think that all the CIA did actually prevented another terrorist attack on US soil? Do you think that the fact that the USA can reduce every Islamic city from Marrakesh to Manila into a radioactive parking lot not give them the right and duty to hold the moral high ground? All they did was kill a lot of Muslims. And they tortured a few more. Which means there are going to be a lot of people who are going to hate the USA and be old enough to carry guns in a few years. Oh, and hand one of the largest oil producing nations on the Earth to a group of people who are completely fucking psychopathic.  harlett: ......  .............  did ya all miss the freakin memo .. where we were all told...that the methods of enhanced interrogation used.. were the exact methods they use on OUR SPECIAL FORCES etc.. to prepare them... there was a moment in time.. when the Untied States Marines ...prepared their recruits for possibly becoming Prisoners of War.. and put them through the EXACT same enhancements and then some.. if you failed.. they branded you a COWARD by slicing your LEFT CHEEK then threw YOU OUT THE MARINE BACK DOOR...no...must be too young to have seen all of those sliced LEFT CHEEKS back in late 50's early 60's.... (Edited by harlett) Geoff: Torture is torture. The US special forces subjected to that sort of treatment were presumably doing so of their own free will, knowing that they could quit at any time. You think it's fine to do the same thing to prisoners. Particularly prisoners who have not been subject to proper judicial procedure? harlett: We will never KNOW the details of !0 should we count them again.. "THE TEN (10 ) with out any doubt about them serious assaults that were in motions to become OUR have to live with realities.. those enhanced interrogations INFORMED ALL OF US OF .... do i believe those TEN ( 10 ) events were all directed at the US of course NOT The British were RED ALERTED several serious times and put a end to those in motions assaults.. say again...????? matters not to me if you think YOU deserve to die going about your own daily business at home.. may that luck be on your side..  ....meanwhile may your children not be with YOU in that moment and may they know long life... Geoff: "The cause-and-effect relationship between the use of EITs and useful information subsequently provided by the detainee is, in my view, unknowable." CIA Director John Brennan "Study shows it IS knowable: CIA had info before torture. " Senator Dianne Feinstein (via Twitter) harlett: torture is different animal.. you torture folks not to get information.. from them.. you torture folks just for the pleasure of harming them... maiming them... enhanced interrogation methods.. were used to extract information.. from those who held that 411... PROPER JUDICIAL PROCEDURES.... how many young teenagers had their HEADS CUT OFF YESTERDAY FOR NOT DENYING THEIR FAITH IN JESUS... (Edited by harlett) Geoff: If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and flies like a duck, don't you pussy foot around hedge on "waterfowl". It was torture by the definitions of international law. FFS - Terrorists commit acts of terror. The US government is not a terrorist organisation, is it? Don't say, "Just because they commit these horrific acts of barbarity we're perfectly justified in sinking to their level." harlett: you and i aren't going to get into this any further.. it be pointless.. i have other ways things to waste my day and morning at... mean while... it has been told.. that the" isis" terrorists have learned to FLY have been in and out of the UNITED STATES in Private SMALL PLANES..yeah for US... Geoff: The CIA is unlikely to be able to torture any ISIS fighters. It's difficult to take prisoners from the cockpit of a F22 harlett: ahahahaha... i know for sure without any doubts about it.. i had never ever been thrown out the MARINES BACK DOOR DISGRACED FOR LIFE BRANDED AS A COWARD...they used Psychological intense intimidation....and mild physical discomforts... Humanity was still throwing their first born two year old's into the cremation fires of molch ALIVE two thousand years ago.. and torturing to death their dedicated to astorteth children who became blemished before before first blush of sexual maturity.... (Edited by harlett) Geoff: Harlett, you are getting off topic, and difficult to understand. Please take a few deep breaths and compose your posts with a little more clarity. My point is: An agency of the US government used methods outlawed under an international treaty to which the USA is a signatory to acquire information it already had. So, it's not only wrong, it's irredeemably wrong. harlett: .........  ....... ....need for me to clarify a wee bit... Rome was having sex with it's children & yours oh and with animals... the Middle east Africa.. were Blood sacrificing their children and cannibalizing their enemies.. a mere 2ooo years ago..........i mentioned it to point out how squishmish or how some folks are thinking they just being civilized..  here in time & date... YET are willingly accepting being DECEIVED.. Geoff: So, you think it is acceptable for the CIA to break the law? Is it that you are just racist against the people who were subjected to torture? Or do you not realise that what was done was wrong? Or do you not accept that it didn't result in useful information being extracted from the people who were tortured? Is that why you are wandering off on such a large tangent? harlett: A talking point memo went out...clearly stating that it was in the free worlds best interest to have a problem with the UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA..when speaking out loud and in PUBLIC.. it's whats ISIS wants to hear... a divided World...it's what the States itself racists wanna hear.. (Edited by harlett) | Politics Chat Room 50 People Chatting Similar Conversations |
