CIA Torture Program and Deception

Record	OBS-0916
Category	Government/Cover-ups
Status	PARTIALLY SUBSTANTIATED
Summary	The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report in 2014 documenting that the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program used torture and misled the public, Congress, and the Department of Justice about its effectiveness and legality. The report concluded that the techniques did not produce unique intelligence and that the CIA's claims of success were often false.
Origin	The report was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2012 and the executive summary was released to the public on December 9, 2014.
Claimed	The CIA used torture (enhanced interrogation techniques) on detainees. The CIA lied about the effectiveness of torture, claiming it produced vital intelligence that saved lives. The CIA misled the Department of Justice to obtain legal approval for torture. The CIA hid the true number of detainees and the extent of techniques used. Two psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, were paid $80 million to design and run the program.
Evidence / consensus	The Senate report, based on a review of millions of CIA documents, confirmed that the CIA used brutal techniques and made false claims about their effectiveness. However, some former officials and Republicans dispute the report's conclusions, arguing it was incomplete or politically motivated.

> OBSERVER NOTE:
The Senate report is a rare case where a government body officially documented a cover-up. The evidence is extensive, but the full report remains classified, leaving some room for dispute.

Sources

Sources are external and provided for verification. Listing does not imply the Observer endorses their claims.