W/S Congress [CUTAWAY]
SOT, Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator (in English): "The fourth and final set of findings and conclusions concern how the interrogations of CIA detainees were absolutely brutal; far worse than the CIA represented them to policy makers and others. Beginning with the first detainee Abu Zubaydah and continuing with numerous others the CIA applied its co called enhance interrogation techniques in combination and in near stop fashion for days and even weeks at a time on one detainee. In contrast to CIA representations detainees were subjected to the most aggressive techniques immediately. Stripped naked, diapered, physically struck, put in various painful stress positions for long periods of time. They were deprived of sleep for days, in one case up to 180 hours, that's seven and a half days, over a week, with no sleep. Usually standing or in stress positions. At times with their hands tied together over their heads, chained to the ceiling. In the cobalt facility I previously mentioned, interrogators and guards used what they called "rough takedowns" in which a detainee was grabbed from his cell, clothes cut off, hooded and dragged up and down a dirt hallway while being slapped and punched. The CIA led several detainees to believe they would never be allowed to leave CIA custody alive, suggesting to Abu Zubaydah that he would only leave in a coffin shaped box. That’s a CIA cable from August 12 2002."
W/S Congress [CUTAWAY]
W/S United States Capitol [NO SOUND AT SOURCE]
SCRIPT
The "absolutely brutal enhanced interrogation techniques" used in the CIA's secret detention facilities included stripping detainees naked, physically striking them, forcing them into painful positions and depriving them of sleep for over a week, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein detailed on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday. The U.S. senator read from the findings of a 500 page executive summary on the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" techniques, considered by many to by a euphenism for torture.
The report details how "enhanced interrogation techniques" were ineffective and that methods such as water boarding, sleep deprivation and slapping were more brutal than previously represented by the CIA. It has also been revealed the techniques were often used in combination, often to "brutal" effect.
"Enhanced interrogation" was used in the years following the 9/11 attacks on the US, with at least 119 suspects held in "black sites" held in secret locations in Europe and Asia under the George W. Bush administration.
Security was increased at US embassies and other US facilities around the world ahead of the publication, as there have been "indications" of "greater risk" according to a White House spokesperson.
