CIA Threatened To Kill Suspect's Children

Report Sheds New Light on Interrogations; One Questioner Allegedly Told Detainee His Mother Would Be Sexually Assaulted

(CBS/AP)  A newly declassified CIA report says interrogators threatened to kill the children of a Sept. 11 suspect.

The document, released Monday by the Justice Department, says one interrogator said a colleague had told Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that if any other attacks happened in the United States, "We're going to kill your children."

Another interrogator allegedly tried to convince a different terror suspect detainee that his mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him - though the interrogator in question denied making such a threat.

A CIA contractor beat another prisoner with a heavy flashlight, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. The report notes, "The detainee died in custody." And Abd al-Nashiri, suspected bomber of the USS Cole, was threatened with a handgun and power drill. "The debriefer ... revved the drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded," the report said.

The report, written in 2004, examined CIA treatment of terror detainees following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It has been declassified as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The report reveals CIA field agents also used mock executions and choke holds. But, whole sections remain secret. Details of the waterboarding of top al Qaeda officials are blacked out, Orr reports. The report shows some interrogators clearly went beyond the harsh interrogation techniques authorized by the Bush Administration's so-called "torture memos."

"They really do show an agency that in some respects is completely out of control. And out of control by design," ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer told Orr.

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Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. named John Durham, a Justice Department prosecutor, to investigate whether interrogators may have broken any laws by threatening terror suspects.

"I don’t think that the attorney general had much choice, politically anyway, but to take this step and launch this criminal investigation," writes CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "And even the CIA itself acknowledges that some of its agents, current and former, went beyond legal limits in interrogation. The question is whether crimes were committed and can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt."

"This is just an initial step," Cohen adds. "Just because there is now a prosecutor doesn’t guarantee we’ll see any CIA trials and certainly doesn’t ensure any convictions. All of the problems that existed before - problems with classified information and inadmissible evidence - still remain."

President Obama, vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, has repeatedly said he has no interest in prosecuting Bush Administration officials who crafted the harsh interrogation policies - or those who followed them. He repeated his assertion that the U.S. should look forward and not back.

His press secretary today reiterated that point in a statement, but added that "determinations about whether someone broke the law are made independently by the Attorney General."

The I-G also claims that harsh interrogations, at times, did work and helped the U.S. capture terror suspects and thwart potential attacks, Orr reports.

But, the release of the long-classified report and the appointment of a prosecutor have outraged CIA employees.

Today CIA Director Leon Panetta tried to boost sagging morale promising the Agency he'll "stand up for those officers who did what their country asked and who followed the legal guidance they were given."

And there's one more change that may be viewed as a slap at the CIA. Going forward, the FBI will be in charge of interrogations, overseen by the president's National Security Council.

Earlier Monday, a top administration official said President Barack Obama had approved a new, special terrorism-era interrogation unit to be supervised by the White House - a departure from President George W. Bush's detainee policies.

[Repubwife]

HELLO...were these not the same loving, kind, and gracious people who vowed that, and I believe I am quoting here, "the streets of America will run red with the blood of your women and children"...I am not supporting physically torturing anyone, but if messin' with their heads can save just ONE United States soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine...mess away, CIA!!

[ErnestNM]

How do you stop the far-right and Republicans from their compulsive lying? They do this even though they know we can all see right through them.

I have pondered this for years now. Then it came me out of the blue - I guess from listening to the reasons for their enthusiastic support for torture.

We need to physically torture them until they stop lying! Nay, they would only say what we wanted them to say to get us to stop the torture.

Well, what is wrong with that? It would stop their lying, and prove that the torture was the right thing to do to them!

Yes, that?s what we need to do to the Republicans. It is for the good of the country - to get us back to the moral Christian standing we once had.

For the far-right, after they stop their lying, immediately air-drop them on the Taliban - they really need to be with their own kind!

[thgdriver]

How many terrorist did you say the CIA cut off the heads of??? None?? Well it looks like we are still better then most I have seen on CNN, CBS, FOX, etc, etc.

[alien_view]

Some of you Liberals have got to be some of the most stupid people on earth. Maybe you would rather have been one of the 3,000 killed in the buildings, burned alive because you did not want a terrorist having his families lives threatened in trade for information to prevent the attacks. You idiots, they weren't really going to kill his family, it was a threat. Too bad you stupid Liberals weren't in the building instead of the innocent people that died. I wish you Liberals would go to France or somewhere with you Marxist Socialist views and leave America to it's Constutional government and freedoms. YOU LIKE SOCIALISM SO MUCH GET OUT AND STAY OUT!

[Oregon_State_OSU]

OH PLEASE

It's always about the Children, Lets Kill the Children, Lets Torture the Children, Lets Starve the Children.

Its gotten very old.

[hamiltoningrate]

We may need to re see the wonderful historical movie, MISSISSIPPI BURNING.

IN that movie, the FBI is following the rules, and the KKK - as a radical fanatic group - is killing and terrorizing the South, and the Black population . One character wants to play by the rules, only to see the increased suffering of the people he is supposed to protect. The KKK was winning, evil as they were. Another FBI character is finally freed to "set things right" by whatever means possible. And so...


Only when the FBI takes the gloves off, and begins the fight the KKK with intimidation, threats and violence, ( and yes , it is not pretty ).... did we break the back of this evil organization. So too, with the Islamic Terrorists, ( just as we did with the KKK ) , we need to do what is right at this time to win.....if we just "play by the rules" we will be defeated.

Just as the people of the South in the 1960s deserved to be protected, so too do we as a nation , need that same use of force, use of torture, intimidation if we are to preserve of freedom, democracy and ironically,,,, the rule of law.

[ErnestNM]

We need to round up Cheney, Bush, Ashcroft, and all of these insects on this blog and air-drop them all on the Taliban...so they can be with their own kind.

[searingtruth]

"And so, just as Hitler and Stalin before them, Bush and his henchmen recruited brutal sociopaths to torture and murder, accounting only to their personal will. Lending them, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically, all necessary moral and legal blessing.

I have always been curious, and wondered, who the American people thought were torturing and murdering in our name."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[fdx22]

Hillary Clinton wants the CIA to ask the terrorists in custody like this:
"Oh pretty please, Mr. Terrorist, when is the next attack on American soil going to take place. Oh pretty please".

[GuyfromUSA]

It appears that trying to knock any sense into your liberal pea brains is pointless. I'm sure that when the next attack comes whether it's in a month or ten years you'll still be as ignorant then as you are now. You just don't get that they want us ALL DEAD.