Classified report warned of possible abuses by CIA

Classified report warned of possible abuses by CIA

The report reflected deep unease within the agency about the
interrogation techniques.

Douglas Jehl, New York Times
Last update: November 8, 2005 at 11:23 PM


WASHINGTON -- A classified report issued last year by the CIA's
inspector general warned that interrogation procedures approved by
the CIA after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks might violate some
provisions of the international Convention Against Torture, current
and former intelligence officials said.

The previously undisclosed findings from the report, which was
completed in the spring of 2004, reflected deep unease within the CIA
about the interrogation procedures, the officials said. A list of 10
techniques authorized early in 2002 for use against suspected
terrorists included one known as known as waterboarding, and went
well beyond those authorized by the military for use on prisoners of
war.

The convention, which was drafted by the United Nations, bars
torture, which is defined as the infliction of "severe" physical or
mental pain or suffering, and prohibits lesser abuses that fall short
of torture if they are "cruel, inhuman or degrading." The United
States is a signatory, but with some reservations set when it was
ratified by the Senate in 1994.

Torture banned under U.S. law

The report, by CIA inspector general John L. Helgerson did not
conclude that the techniques constituted torture, which is also
prohibited under U.S. law, the officials said. But Helgerson did
find, the officials said, that the techniques appeared to constitute
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under the convention.

The CIA said in a written statement in March that "all approved
interrogation techniques, both past and present, are lawful and do
not constitute torture." The agency reaffirmed that statement
Tuesday, but would not comment on any classified report issued by
Helgerson. The statement in March did not specifically address
techniques that could be labeled cruel, inhuman or degrading, and
which are not explicitly prohibited in U.S. law.

Detained in secret locations

The officials who described the report said it discussed particular
techniques used by the CIA against particular prisoners, including
about three dozen suspected terrorists being held by the agency in
secret locations around the world. They said it referred in
particular to the treatment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the mastermind
of the Sept. 11 attacks, who has been detained in a secret location
by the CIA since he was captured in March 2003. Mohammed is among
those believed to have been subjected to waterboarding, in which a
prisoner is strapped to a board and made to believe he is drowning.

"The ambiguity in the law must cause nightmares for intelligence
officers who are engaged in aggressive interrogations of Al-Qaida
suspects and other terrorism suspects," said John Radsan, a former
assistant general counsel at the agency who left in 2004. Radsan, now
an associate professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St.
Paul, would not comment on Helgerson's report.

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