Inside the CIA's Haphazard Interrogations

Questioners Had Little Training, Often Overstepped Even Flexible Guidelines of Bush Administration

(CBS/AP)  With just two weeks of training, or about half the time it takes to become a truck driver, the CIA certified its spies as interrogation experts after 9/11 and handed them the keys to the most coercive tactics in the agency's arsenal.

It was a haphazard process, cobbled together in the months following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington by an agency that had never been in the interrogation business. The result was a patchwork program in which rules kept shifting and the goals often were unclear.

At times, the interrogators went too far, even beyond the wide latitude they were given under the Bush administration's flexible guidelines, according to newly unclassified documents released Monday. Interrogators took the simulated drowning technique of waterboarding beyond what was authorized. Mock executions were held. Family members were threatened. There were hints of rape.

If it was a terrifying process for the detainees, it was a bureaucratic nightmare for the interrogators. Until 2003, the agency provided its interrogators with rules on a case-by-case basis, sometimes giving permission by e-mail or even orally from CIA headquarters.

The interrogators were required to sign documents saying they understood the rules and would comply with them. Yet they were given ample room to improvise and make decisions about how much humanity to show to terror detainees.

While former Vice President Dick Cheney said the interrogation program was run by "highly trained professionals who understand their obligations under the law," the newly released documents suggest otherwise, at least in the early months.

The interrogators slapped prisoners, held a handgun to one's head, used power drills to make threats and left men shackled and naked in frigid rooms until they cooperated.

"How cold is cold?" one officer said in the 2004 CIA inspector general's report released Monday. "How cold is life-threatening?"

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The CIA's Counterterrorism Center began training interrogators in November 2002, two months after suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah already had been repeatedly subjected to waterboarding.

But because the CIA had so little information about al Qaeda, CIA analysts could only speculate about what the detainees "should know," hobbling the interrogators' ability to ask meaningful questions and identify misleading or useful answers.

Some in the CIA correctly feared that the existence of the program would leak out someday. Others worried they'd be identified by name in news stories.

"One officer expressed concern that, one day, agency officers will wind up on some 'wanted list' to appear before the World Court for war crimes," the inspector general wrote.

Another added, "Ten years from now we're going to be sorry we're doing this ... (but) it has to be done."

Even the Justice Department, which authorized the interrogation program, conceded in a 2004 memo that "at least in some instances and particularly early in the program," the program appeared to have gone off track.

Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a prosecutor Monday to look into whether such incidents amounted to violation of federal law. He said nobody who operated within the framework of the Justice Department's legal opinions will be charged.

But the program that the Bush administration's Justice Department approved in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks began to short-circuit almost immediately.

In August 2002, government lawyers said interrogators were not supposed to use harsh tactics until all other methods had failed. But three months later, when officials captured the terrorism suspect Abd al-Nashiri, believed to be behind the bombing of the USS Cole, interrogators immediately launched into enhanced tactics.

And the method of waterboarding used by the CIA did not always resemble the clinical, closely supervised process that the Justice Department approved. One official, explaining why interrogators were pouring excessive amounts of water over a detainee's cloth-covered mouth and nose, said, "It is for real."

Another interrogator repeatedly choked off the carotid artery of a prisoner, causing the detainee to pass out, then shaking him awake again. The interrogator had only recently been trained in interrogation tactics and had previous experience only in debriefing, the practice of questioning people already willing to cooperate.

As late as September 2003, the CIA was still sending mixed signals to its interrogators.

"No formal mechanisms were in place to ensure that personnel going to the field were briefed on the existing legal and policy guidance," the report said.

It was a debriefer, not a trained interrogator, who threatened alleged al-Nashiri with a power drill and an unloaded gun. Such threats violate U.S. anti-torture laws.

It's not clear from CIA reports whether waterboarding or other aggressive tactics made America safer, as Cheney has long claimed. CIA officials credited the detention and interrogation program with thwarting several terrorist attacks.

And Cheney repeated Tuesday the claim that the interrogations "saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks" and the interrogators "deserve our gratitude" and don't deserve "to be targets of political investigations or prosecutions."

But investigators said it's less certain that waterboarding or other coercive tactics directly contributed to that success.

In one case, CIA officials staged a mock execution to terrify a detainee into cooperating. Authorities believed the detainee was withholding information, and they felt they needed to get creative. So they pretended to kill another detainee in a nearby room.

It was an elaborate setup, complete with a guard playing a dead detainee.

But the scheme apparently didn't work. A senior officer later said the effort was so obviously a ruse, it yielded no benefit to interrogators.

[hower4]

by Joe_NY_15 August 26, 2009 4:46 PM EDT
Obviously they were engaged in combat against U.S. troops, OR, were found to be aiding, cooperating or supporting terrorist elements or operatives, making them culpable and guilty of terrorist acts....did you think we picked him up in a sweep and just beat him for no purpose or reason.....of course, that's how Eurotrash thinks
-------------------------------
So you regard it as acceptable to beat someone to death because they are suspected of something? Is that what you do to crime suspects in New York too?

[hower4]

by HereIsBaghdad2009 August 25, 2009 12:22 PM EDT
What prisoner was beat to death idiot?Your mommy?
---------------------------------
Manadel al-Jamadi is one of many who were beaten/tortured to death at Abu Ghraib. At least 28 prisoners died in custody in a short period at just that one American prison alone.

A 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar was beaten to death by American soldiers in Bagram prison. The coroner's report said that his legs were "pulpified". The report noted that Daliwar's legs would have certainly had to be amputated had he survived. The bones in his legs were so fractured as to lend no structure to the limbs.

There are many more examples, but you don't really want to know, do you?

[Joe_NY_15]

by hower4 August 26, 2009 5:29 AM EDT
___________________

Don't mess with the U.S. or you will be beaten to a pulp, in more ways then one......period

[hower4]

Please tell us, in what way did Manadel al-Jamadi, Dilawar and the others "mess with the US" that caused them to be beaten to a pulp?

[hamiltoningrate]

Isn't all of govt a haphazard process ?

hello ...

Why should anyone expect that the govt should be able to run all of health care if it can't even do this ???

[readingbetweenlines]

Or tell it to Bill Clinton - under oath.

[readingbetweenlines]

I am fully aware of trickle-down etc., and no, I am not just blaming the democratic house during the last two Bush years. What I am saying is stop blaming everything on the Republicans, even though they have made more than their share of mistakes. It took several administrations to get us were we are today. Republicans and Democrats are in this together, they have created this. Now lets all be Americans and work together to overcome this mess.

[areuforreal]

I agree that we should come together to work out these problems. However if you listen to Rush or other far right radicals, that would be un american. You are also correct about the blame. Both parties are guilty however it is the repub's who rant against every idea the dem's come up with. Politics should not be an issue here. Helping our fellow citizens should be the issue. Some say why should I help pay for someone else? The answer is simple. Most americans are 1 illness away from joining the ranks of the uninsured.
As long as we have 47 million without healthcare, we are heading toward a financial breakdown. Healthcare as a profit motivated industry is killing needlessly.

[woeisme1]

Hey! You American Taliban Revolutionary Republican Fascists. Since you are so into guns and hate that Khadafi's son was released from prison, Khadafi is coming to New Jersey next month.

Central Park banned him there. He wanted to actually camp out there. So now it's New Jersey.

Why don't you stop with the lies about Obama and his policies, and focus your racist hatred on Khadafi? I mean I don't hear no protest about that!!!

Maybe you guys could go there and waterboard him. No?

[readingbetweenlines]

You only think that you understand! You are sooo far off...

[readingbetweenlines]

Just because an issue is "settled" does not make it right. I feel sorry for you. A woman's rights? A woman has the right to kill? I will not get over it, because it is torture of the worst kind. Do a little thinking. You can't have it both ways.

[drsam8]

The perennial question is: Will America remain A NATION OF LAWS? Attorney General Eric Holder might yet prove to us in the present era that, truly, no one is above the law. As against an earlier argument advanced by Dick Cheney and some Republicans, the end does not justify the means. Western democracies have long discarded such an argument. In some Moslem countries, they cut off body parts of prisoners in their search for truth, or for sheer revenge. Can we do this, and still be different?and better? Some have argued that Eric Holder has not gone far enough?as he placed an unwarranted limit on what may be probed. Some human rights groups have called for a full probe. Without doubt expediency dictates Eric Holder?s more limited action. He is duty-bound under the Constitution to uphold the law?without bias or special favors to the powerful. Thus will he demonstrate to the world the sanctity and integrity of the American legal system. Some like Dick Cheney may beg to differ. In fact, Cheney?s attitude suggests his contempt for the law. Thus he openly disagrees with his boss for not giving full pardon to ?Scooter? Libby. Cheney hovers menacingly over our current political horizon, still kicking, still arguing that we are stronger and more secure as a nation by doing things that are over the top, things that clearly violet American and international law. We should not fall for such a sugar-coated approach to governance. We are better off as a nation of laws! aGAINST some people's preference that we do nothing, or Cheney's claim that he is protecting CIA operatives whom he really abused in his vigilante approach to governing, many of us would simply say, stay tuned, DICK!

[readingbetweenlines]

Hmmm, guess guess what... I am from Europe.

[ibsteve2u]

Methinks we need to pass single payer universal health care even worse now - for the sake of the rightie posters on CBS and elsewhere.

'Cuz can you imagine their mental state - their enraged, bitter frustration - if the Democrats and Independents start sweeping elections in 2010 and 2012 and they cannot get America by the testicular conveyance system again?

They'll all need shrinks - and having gone over the edge, won't be able to work. Assuming they do now, of course.

[seafang]

Well their ploys all sound good to me. You have to remember that we are talking about enemies who do not conform to the normal rules of war as covered by the Geneva Conventions. Adn their own behavior with the "prisoners" they capture shows that they have no scruples themselves. The solution for the future in war, is obvious; don't take prisoners. The US goes out of its way to prevent civilian casualties even at the peril of our own soldiers; so the future civilian casualty rate will be a little higher, but still way lower than it has been in any preceding war.

Oh you didn't know this was a war; what did you think it was; a TV reality show ?

[erasmus111]

I think Joey is off throwing a tantrum, AGAIN.

[Joe_NY_15]

by erasmus111 August 25, 2009 5:19 PM EDT
I think Joey is off throwing a tantrum, AGAIN.
__________________

No, Joey was not

[Joe_NY_15]

by erasmus111 August 25, 2009 4:48 PM EDT
When you do it this way, it can make it confusing. In this case, it makes it look like I made that comment.

CBS should never have made it so the posters name is at the top. It should be at the bottom like before.
_________________

I admitted long ago, that I should have seperated the reference name/date/time with my own comment, by including a ________line or a portion of the original post in quotations....it's not a big deal

[erasmus111]

To you it's no big deal, but to others, it may be. : )

You need to apologize to reveal. : ) And say that you will never, ever do it again. : )

[schotzy81]

Seems to me that the process was working, at least until Obama and the rest of the far left decided trying to score political points was more important than national security.

[parrots7]

And Cheney repeated Tuesday the claim that the interrogations "saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks" and the interrogators "deserve our gratitude" and don't deserve "to be targets of political investigations or prosecutions."


Political Investigations from right within this same Organisation and from a report created under his watch ??? Any other Dumb Repugs ??

[searingtruth]

"Torture is not confusing at all. The stench of the vomit and blood and urine and feces expelled by its victims, and their wrenching cries for mercy or death, are clear evidence that abomination is working its evil will.

No one can deny, or claim ignorance, of its stain.

And its stain upon America will never be erased.

There are some things that you can never take back."
SearingTruth


A Future of the Brave

[erasmus111]

by Joe_NY_15 August 25, 2009 4:26 PM EDT
by erasmus111 August 25, 2009 4:18 PM EDT

correct, I admitted that I should have used a _______under his name, but for him to suggest that I was implying that HE was making the comment (in my post) is just ignorant and blog-amateurish


See, you've done it again, with my name. If you insist on replying in the "reply to comment" part, you need to include part of my post,not just the name, so that when it is repeated over and over again without the original comment, I know what the hell you are talking about. I don't want to have to go allllll the way back to the original post to find out.

[erasmus111]

When you do it this way, it can make it confusing. In this case, it makes it look like I made that comment.

CBS should never have made it so the posters name is at the top. It should be at the bottom like before.

[reveal5]

My reply to JoeNy is that I hope that CBS News will figure out who is posting their own comments under my blog name and that individual will be banned for terms of service violations. Since you warned me of consequences if I reported you yesterday when you posted your comments under my blog name in a post which included your blog name.... And today someone is posting their own comments under my blog name without their blog name appearing..... And you posted today that I was warned, and was messing with the wrong people...I just have to wonder, JoeNY. At any rate, JoeNY, if CBS can't figure out what is going on, this blog could get seriously screwed up with people posting comments under other bloggers names. If CBS can't figure it out, I probably will not comment here any further. One thing we can agree on is that would make you happy, JoeNY.

[jszar61331]

I suppose that when the terrorists boarded those planes and slit the pilots throats to gain control of the planes that slammed into the WTC they were not too worried about what kind of tactics would be used if they were questioned.

You have to fight fire with fire sometime. It's an ugly world we live in, but we must do whatever is needed to protect oursleves.

The people that are doing these interogations should not have to fear the United States government in the course of doing their jobs.

Does anyone remember hearing the governments in Pakistan or Iraq or wherever raising any uproar when they were watching beheadings on the internet? I don't think so...