--- title: Torture Report: Here's What the CIA Actually Did in Interrogations description: The debate over the CIA’s interrogation and detention program became very graphic Tuesday with the release of a Senate report. canonical: https://time.com/3626205/torture-report-cia-interrogation-methods/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-09T20:39:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:12.189Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's What the CIA Actually Did in Interrogations og:description: The debate over the CIA’s interrogation and detention program became very graphic Tuesday with the release of a Senate report. og:url: https://time.com/3626205/torture-report-cia-interrogation-methods/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt267e234bb6afc336/69876d943c1639b98045085a/cia-headquarters-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 Headquarters Torture Report og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What the CIA Actually Did in Interrogations twitter:description: The debate over the CIA’s interrogation and detention program became very graphic Tuesday with the release of a Senate report. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt267e234bb6afc336/69876d943c1639b98045085a/cia-headquarters-torture-report.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What the CIA Actually Did in Interrogations > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Dianne Feinstein on CIA Interrogation Techniques [Watch (HLS stream): Dianne Feinstein on CIA Interrogation Techniques](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BiWzgliH.m3u8) (1:30)  _Published 2014-12-10. Dianne Feinstein describes the "enhanced" Interrogation Techniques used by the CIA on al-Qaeda suspects._ by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/) and [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) Dec 9, 2014 8:39 PM UTC  The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in McLean, Va. The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in McLean, Va. Larry Downing—Reuters by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/) and [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) Dec 9, 2014 8:39 PM UTC The debate over the CIA’s interrogation and detention program became very graphic Tuesday with the release of a [Senate report](http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf). After reviewing more than 6.2 million documents, Senate investigators went into detail on some of the specific things done to detainees under the program, which critics say amounted to torture. Not every method was used regularly and some may have been used only once. But here’s a running list of the methods outlined in the report: * Forcibly shaving a detainee (p. 72) * Waterboarding one detainee more than 183 times (pg. 85) * Pureeing a detainee’s lunch tray of hummus, pasta, nuts and raisins and putting it in his rectum (pg. 100) * Forcing detainees to stand on broken feet (pg. 101) * Forcing a detainee to wear a diaper with no access to a bathroom (pg. 53) * Playing loud music 24 hours a day (pg. 53) * Handcuffing a detainee to the ceiling for 22 hours a day so he couldn’t lower his arms (pg. 53) * Forcing a detainee to sit naked on a cold concrete floor (pg. 54) * Depriving detainees of sleep for up to 180 hours (pg. 165) * Threatening a detainee with a gun and an electric drill (pg. 69) * Threatening detainees’ families, including telling one detainee that his mother would be sexually abused in front of him (pg. 70) * Forcibly bathing a detainee with a stiff brush (pg. 70) * Keeping detainees in isolation for years (pg. 80) * Dousing detainees with cold water (pg. 105) * Keeping detainees in uncomfortably cold temperatures (pg. 105) * Forcing detainees to subsist on liquid diets (pg. 165) * Putting insects in a confinement box with a detainee (pg. 409) * Carrying out mock executions (pg. 59) * Covering detainees’ heads with hoods (p. 53) * “Walling,” or slamming detainees against the wall (pg. 40) * Administering facial and abdominal slaps (p. 42) * Blowing cigarette smoke into a detainee’s face (pg. 190) * Dragging a detainee blindfolded through the dirt in a “rough takedown” (pg. 190) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3626205/torture-report-cia-interrogation-methods/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3626205/torture-report-cia-interrogation-methods/"},"headline":"Here's What the CIA Actually Did in Interrogations","datePublished":"2014-12-09T20:39:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:12.189Z","description":"More than just waterboarding","url":"https://time.com/3626205/torture-report-cia-interrogation-methods/","keywords":["intelligence","Senate","torture","Senate Torture Report","Torture Report"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt267e234bb6afc336/69876d943c1639b98045085a/cia-headquarters-torture-report.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt267e234bb6afc336/69876d943c1639b98045085a/cia-headquarters-torture-report.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CIA Headquarters Torture Report","caption":"The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in McLean, Virginia","creditText":"Larry Downing—Reuters","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/3626205/torture-report-cia-interrogation-methods/","name":"Here's What the CIA Actually Did in Interrogations"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Dianne Feinstein on CIA Interrogation Techniques","description":"Dianne Feinstein describes the \"enhanced\" Interrogation Techniques used by the CIA on al-Qaeda suspects.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BiWzgliH/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-10T03:42:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BiWzgliH.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3626205/torture-report-cia-interrogation-methods/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3626205/torture-report-cia-interrogation-methods/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```