“Rectal Feeding,” Threats to Children, and More: 16 Awful Abuses From the CIA Torture Report

A new report from the Senate intelligence committee says the CIA pureed hummus and put it in a detainee’s rectum.

<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-135719726/stock-photo-man-on-a-chair-in-the-room.html?src=9lBmmYy_gyd7WwNklgggQw-1-30&ws=1">jerryjoz</a>/Shutterstock

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


On Tuesday morning, the Senate intelligence committee released an executive summary of its years-long investigation into the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. President George W. Bush authorized the so-called “enhanced interrogation” program after the 9/11 attacks. The United States government this week has warned personnel in facilities abroad, including US embassies, to be ready in case protests erupt in response.

The full report includes over 6,000 pages and 35,000 footnotes. You can read the executive summary here. Here are some of the lowlights:

1. The CIA used previously unreported tactics, including “rectal feeding” of detainees (p. 100, footnote 584):

rectal feeding

2. CIA officers threatened the children of detainees (p. 4):

cia threatened children

3. Over 20 percent of CIA detainees were “wrongfully held.” One was an “intellectually challenged” man who was held so the CIA could get leverage over his family (p. 12):

wrongfully held detainees

4. One detainee, Abu Hudhaifa, was subjected to “ice water baths” and “66 hours of standing sleep deprivation” before being released because the CIA realized it probably had the wrong man (p. 16, footnote 32):

abu hudhaifa sleep deprivation

5. The CIA, contrary to what it told Congress, began torturing detainees before even determining whether they would cooperate (p. 104):

torture before questioning

6. CIA officers began torturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “a few minutes” after beginning to question him (p. 108):

ksm tortured within minutes

7. The CIA planned to detain KSM incommunicado for the rest of his life, without charge or trial (p. 9):

incommunicado forever

8. During waterboarding sessions, KSM made up a story that Al Qaeda was trying to recruit African-American Muslims…in Montana (p. 118):

montana muslims

9. In 2003, Bush gave a speech at a UN event condemning torture and calling on other nations to investigate and prosecute torture allegations. The statement was so at odds with US practices that the CIA contacted the White House to make sure enhanced interrogation techniques were still okay (pp. 209-210):
 

bush un torture remarks

10. The CIA torturers told CIA leadership that torture wasn’t producing good information from KSM. But CIA leaders didn’t relay that information to Congress (p. 212):

cia misled congress on torture

11. A detainee was tortured for not addressing an interrogator as “sir”—and for complaining about a stomach ache (p. 106):

detainee sir

12. CIA officers cried when they witnessed the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah (p. 44):

cia crying abu zubaydah

13. Within weeks of his arrival in CIA custody, Zubaydah was “on life support and unable to speak” (p. 30):

cia life support

14. Bush Justice Department official Jay Bybee, who is now a federal judge, told Congress the torture of Al Qaeda detainees led to the US capture of Jose Padilla. That wasn’t true (p. 207):

bybee padilla

15. The secretary of state wasn’t informed when the CIA made secret deals to open detention facilities abroad (p. 123):

secretary of state not informed

16. Even President George W. Bush wasn’t informed where the facilities were—because he feared he’d “accidentally disclose” the information (p. 124):

bush didn't know

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate