Intel probe: CIA misled on interrogation program

A new report compiled by the Senate Intelligence Committee found the CIA misled the government and public about its interrogation program, according to multiple reports.

The review suggests CIA officials covered up some interrogation methods that were not approved by the government and claimed they obtained intelligence from detainees through the use of torture, but actually didn’t. 

The Associated Press, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday about the findings of the 6,300-page review, based on information provided by anonymous sources. 

{mosads}Officials under President George W. Bush introduced the interrogation program just after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. This new report is the most comprehensive overview of the program’s details. 

“The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the Department of Justice and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives,” one U.S. official briefed on the report told the Post. “Was that actually true? The answer is no.”

The report, which was completed in December 2012, found CIA officials left a secret prison in Thailand because they were uncomfortable with the interrogation techniques used there, according to the Post.

One terrorism suspect was allegedly tortured in Afghanistan, where officials repeatedly dunked the suspect in tanks of ice water. That technique, the Post notes, was not approved by the Justice Department. 

On Monday morning, the AP reported on a piece of the report, which says enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding were not effective in providing critical information in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee are slated to vote on Thursday to send an executive summary of the report to President Obama to declassify. The summary is roughly 500 pages, the Wall Street Journal said. Obama has said he would declassify the documents. 

The CIA has already disputed portions of the probe, but a spokesman for the agency told the Post the CIA has not seen a final version of the report and could not comment.