One-Year Anniversary of Suppressed Report on CIA Torture

Today marks the
one year anniversary of the Obama administration’s decision to
suppress a 6,000-page report on the CIA’s post-9/11 detention and
interrogation policies. On Thursday night, Senate Intelligence
Chair Dianne Feinstein
announced that portions of the report will be made
public. 

The report details the living conditions for
every prisoner in CIA custody. According to Senator Feinstein, who
viewed the report last year, it
reveals crucial information on “the conditions under which
[prisoners] were detained, how they were interrogated, the
intelligence they actually provided and the accuracy — or
inaccuracy — of CIA descriptions about the program to the White
House, Department of Justice, Congress and others.”

“The report uncovers startling details about the CIA detention
and interrogation program and raises critical questions about
intelligence operations and oversight,” Senator Feinstein
said. “I strongly believe that the creation of long-term,
clandestine ‘black sites’ and the use of so-called
‘enhanced-interrogation techniques’ were terrible mistakes. The
majority of the Committee agrees.”

Sources familiar with the report said it
finds torture an ineffective technique. Additionally, investigators

found “no evidence” that enhanced interrogations played “any
significant role” in the discovery and killing of Osama bin
Laden.

The report is based on four years of investigation and six
million CIA documents and cost $40 million to undertake. It
contains 20 findings and conclusions. 

When the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt the
report’s conclusions last year, numerous politicians called for the
documents to be released. However, the Obama administration elected
to
review the document first to insert comments and
redactions. 

In that time,
civil liberties groups and prominent politians such as John
McCain, have insisted that the documents be released. To honor the
one-year anniversary today, the Center for Victims of Torture has

assembled a list of 58 notable figures who insist that the
public be able to read the important document.