Islam Times - Harsh CIA interrogation methods ineffective

Islam Times - A US Senate committee has approved a long-awaited voluminous report that concludes harsh interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) failed to obtain major intelligence achievements, officials say.

The 6,000-page report on CIA's severe interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, was approved by the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday after a closed-door vote, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The report, the content of which has not been released to the public, is the most detailed independent examination carried out up to date of the CIA’s attempts to extract information out of dozens of detainees through physical and psychological threats.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, committee chairperson, refused to make specific comments about the report but said in a written statement that decisions allowing the agency to establish a network of secret prisons and use coercive interrogation measures were “terrible mistakes.”

The Senator said that the committee will hand over the massive document to the Obama administration and the CIA to provide them with a chance to comment.

High-ranking officials in the George W. Bush administration had always disputed statements about the ineffectiveness of CIA's techniques.

Former vice president Dick Cheney and former CIA director Michael Hayden defended the use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other measures.