What Newly Released CIA Documents Reveal About 'Torture' in Its Former Detention Program
Source: ABC News
What Newly Released CIA Documents Reveal About 'Torture' in Its Former Detention Program
By CATHERINE THORBECKE Jun 15, 2016, 5:28 PM ET
The Central Intelligence Agency has released some 50 documents on its former "Detention and Interrogation" program in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The now-declassified documents highlight some of the methods used in what critics have characterized as a "torture" program, which was in place under the George W. Bush administration, the ACLU said in a statement Tuesday. The documents range from revealing techniques for what has euphemistically been called “enhanced interrogation," to the finding that the CIA detained the wrong individual for months.
“These newly declassified records add new detail to the public record of the CIA's torture program and underscore the cruelty of the methods the agency used in its secret, overseas black sites,” Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director, said in statement. “It bears emphasis that these records document grave crimes for which no senior official has been held accountable.”
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Some major findings include new information on the death of Gul Rahman, who died while detained by the CIA in 2002, according to the CIA documents. The now de-classified report states that Rahman died of hypothermia while nude from the waist down, and "shackled in a position that prevented him from moving around to keep warm."
Another finding was that "the kidnapping and torture" of a German citizen was a case of "mistaken identity," according to the ACLU. The 2007 CIA Inspector General's report, which was part of Tuesday's document release, states that the CIA took Khalid al-Masri and kept him detained for over two months even after the agency had determined there was no justification for his detention.
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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/newly-released-cia-documents-reveal-torture-detention-program/story?id=39873389
