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 The Central Intelligence Agency also issued erroneous claims about
how many people it subjected to techniques such as simulated
drowning, or "water boarding," according to the news service, citing
conclusions from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report
obtained by McClatchy.
The report also concluded that the CIA used interrogation methods
that were not approved by its own headquarters or the U.S. Justice
Department, impeded White House oversight and actively evaded
oversight both by Congress and its own Inspector General.
The CIA also provided false information to the U.S. Justice
Department, which used that information to conclude that the methods
would not break the law because those applying them did not
specifically intend to inflict severe pain or suffering, the report
added.
Human rights activists called for the immediate declassification of
the entire document.
"The report's findings appear to show that the CIA systematically
misled Congress, the White House, and the Department of Justice
about its brutal and unlawful interrogation program," said Raha
Wala, senior counsel at Human Rights First in Washington.
"How does it make sense for the president to allow the CIA to take
charge of declassifying a report that shows unlawful and
embarrassing conduct on its part?" she asked in a statement
responding to the McClatchy report.
CIA spokesman Dean Boyd told Reuters he could not comment because
the report is still classified.
"As we have stated previously, the CIA, in consultation with other
agencies, will carry out an expeditious classification review of
those portions of the final SSCI report submitted to the Executive
Branch for review," he said.
"Our response to the 2012 version of the SSCI report found several
areas in which CIA and SSCI agreed, and several other areas in which
we disagreed," he added.
A version of the report was finished in 2012, but it was revised
before the Senate committee voted in favor of declassifying parts of
it, including its findings and conclusions, on April 3.
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AREAS OF DISAGREEMENT
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee's Democratic chairwoman,
said then she hoped President Barack Obama's administration would
declassify the report within 30 days.
Feinstein declined to comment on McClatchy's story, but said: "If
someone distributed any part of this classified report, they broke
the law and should be prosecuted."
The vote to lift the blackout on the summary and recommendations of
the 6,200-page report followed an unprecedented clash between
Feinstein and the CIA. Feinstein accused the agency of spying on
Democratic committee staff who compiled it and the CIA accused staff
members of illegally obtaining CIA documents.
The massive undertaking has also caused tensions between Democrats
on the intelligence committee, who conducted the report, and some
committee Republicans, who said they considered the process
politicized and the report biased.
They disputed assertions that the interrogation techniques had not
helped to track down now slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or
others suspected of terrorism.
Once the White House and CIA finish the declassification process,
the report will give the world its first official look at the
regimen of interrogation and detentions in the aftermath of the
September 11, 2001 attacks under Republican U.S. President George W.
Bush.
McClatchy posted this link to what it said were the list of findings
in the Intelligence committee report:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/
1109052-senate-intelligence-report-list-of-
cia-findings.html#storylink=relast.
(Reporting and writing by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by
Mark Hosenball; editing by Miral Fahmy)
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