--- title: Torture Report Describes CIA Interrogation Program description: A Senate committee released a 600-page assessment of the CIA's interrogation program in the five years after 9/11. canonical: https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/ author: Massimo Calabresi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-09T16:17:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T22:08:25.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Torture Report Describes CIA Interrogation Program og:description: A Senate committee released a 600-page assessment of the CIA's interrogation program in the five years after 9/11. og:url: https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt558461c11a7a3ac3/69876d9306f2c10d5e332bf9/cia-torture-report.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: CIA Torture Report og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Torture Report Describes CIA Interrogation Program twitter:description: A Senate committee released a 600-page assessment of the CIA's interrogation program in the five years after 9/11. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt558461c11a7a3ac3/69876d9306f2c10d5e332bf9/cia-torture-report.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senate Torture Report Describes CIA Interrogation Program > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b8c4a29f-56d2-46ff-8d28-0082d04c00cc&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: CIA Director Brennan Speaks on Senate Torture Report [Watch (HLS stream): CIA Director Brennan Speaks on Senate Torture Report](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fELLDOcb.m3u8) (1:24)  _Published 2014-12-11. CIA Director Brennan Speaks on Senate Torture Report_  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 10:08 PM UTCPublished: Dec 9, 2014 4:17 PM UTC  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 10:08 PM UTCPublished: Dec 9, 2014 4:17 PM UTC Thirteen years after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. by the terrorist group al Qaeda, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a [500-page assessment](http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf) of the program of harsh interrogation and detention used by the Central Intelligence Agency from 2002 to 2007 on more than a hundred members of the terrorist organization after their capture. Based on 6.2 million pages of documents, photos and other CIA files, the report presents evidence that the agency’s interrogation methods were brutal and possibly illegal, that they were poorly managed, and that the agency misrepresented it to the White House, the Justice Department, Congress and the American people. Ultimately, the Senate Democrats conclude the methods used were not effective, and were not worth the costs to reputation and national security that resulted from the program. Aspects of the detention and interrogation of al Qaeda suspects, according to the report, included: a detainee becoming unconscious during the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, requiring medical attention as he regurgitated air and water; a detainee dying from exposure to extreme cold shackled to the floor in what government observers later described as a dungeon; detainees’ injuries being allowed to deteriorate as part of interrogation; and psychological effects from interrogation including hallucinations, paranoia, self-harm and self-mutilation. The report also finds the CIA at times lost detainees and discovered them only after days of neglect. President Barack Obama said the report detailed a “troubling” program and showed that “some of the actions that were taken were contrary to our values.” “That is why I unequivocally banned torture when I took office, because one of our most effective tools in fighting terrorism and keeping Americans safe is staying true to our ideals at home and abroad,” Obama said in a statement. “These techniques did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners,” Obama added. “That is why I will continue to use my authority as President to make sure we never resort to those methods again.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chair of the intelligence committee who has spent years fighting CIA and Republican resistance to producing and releasing the report previously said, “If the Senate can declassify this report, we will be able to ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted.” Current and former intelligence officials, and Republican members of Congress strongly dispute the characterization of the program and the CIA’s actions, arguing that it produced much of the information that led to the successful efforts by the Bush and Obama administrations to roll back the central leadership of al Qaeda. Republican members of the intelligence committee released at the same time a 100-plus page minority report dissenting with some of the findings and conclusions of the Democrat’s document. The CIA also released a summary of its response to the SSCI report rebutting many of the findings. Of the 20 cases the SSCI report cites to show the CIA program was ineffective, the agency disagrees with all but two. “We acknowledge that the detention and interrogation program had shortcomings and that the Agency made mistakes,” said CIA Director John Brennan. Brennan said the interrogation of detainees “did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives.” The agency argues that it is impossible to say whether the harsh techniques produced intelligence that would otherwise have been obtained through less harsh methods. Brennan said the SSCI report provides an “incomplete and selective picture of what occurred.” The report is likely to produce extended political battles over what information was known about the CIA program, by whom and at what time. The report finds evidence that both the CIA and some at the White House took steps to limit questions about the legality of the program and the number of senior Bush administration officials who were aware of it. It finds that President Bush first learned of the details of the interrogation techniques in 2006 and appeared uncomfortable with some of them, including the image of a prisoner shackled and having to go to the bathroom on himself. The underlying question that authors and opponents of the report both would like to see settled in the debate is whether the techniques described in the report should ever be used again. Vice President Dick Cheney, former CIA director Michael Hayden, and many others argue that it was legal, effective and crucial in the fight against terrorism. Feinstein, President Obama, and many outside human rights groups say the techniques were wrong and crossed the line into torture, violating core American values. ## Transcript The CIA was unprepared to conduct a detention and interrogation program, and our officers inadequately developed and monitored its initial activities. The agency failed to establish quickly the operational guidelines needed to govern the entire effort. In a limited number of cases, agency officers used interrogation techniques that had not been authorized, were abhorrent and rightly should be repudiated by all. And we fell short when it came to holding some officers accountable for their mistakes. When the President came into office in January 2009, he took the position that these techniques were contrary to our values, and he unequivocally banned their use. He has consistently expressed the view that these techniques did significant damage to America's standing in the world. And made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners, something I have experiences firsthand. The cause and effect relationship between the use of E. I. T. s and useful information subsequently provided by the detainee is, in my view, unknowable. I fully support the president's decision to prohibit the use of E. I. T. s.. We know there are further organizational improvements to be made as a result of our review of the study, and we are pursuing them. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/"},"headline":"Senate Torture Report Describes CIA Interrogation Program","datePublished":"2014-12-09T16:17:46.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T22:08:25.000Z","description":"Senate Democrats say the methods were illegal and ineffective","url":"https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/","keywords":["intelligence","torture","National Security","Senate Torture Report","Torture Report"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt558461c11a7a3ac3/69876d9306f2c10d5e332bf9/cia-torture-report.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Massimo Calabresi","jobTitle":"Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief.","url":"https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt558461c11a7a3ac3/69876d9306f2c10d5e332bf9/cia-torture-report.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CIA Torture Report","caption":"CIA Torture Report","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/intelligence/","name":"intelligence"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/","name":"Senate Torture Report Describes CIA Interrogation Program"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Dianne Feinstein on Torture Report","description":"Dianne Feinstein on Torture Report","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PgrKdhsm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-09T17:23:58.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PgrKdhsm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/","duration":"PT52S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"CIA Director Brennan Speaks on Senate Torture Report","description":"CIA Director Brennan Speaks on Senate Torture Report","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fELLDOcb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-11T22:34:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fELLDOcb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/","duration":"PT1M24S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```