CIA Releases Documents Related to Enhanced Interrogation Program

Yesterday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Central Intelligence Agency released over 50 documents related to the agency's enhanced interrogation and rendition program during the Bush administration. The ACLU requested the release of the documents after they were referenced in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Study of the CIA program, sometimes called the Torture Report.

The Washington Post writes:

The files include granular descriptions of the inner workings of the CIA’s “black site” prisons, messages sent to CIA headquarters from field officers who expressed deep misgivings with how detainees were being treated and secret memos raising objections to the roles played by doctors and psychologists in the administration of treatment later condemned as torture.

But the collection also includes documents that were drafted by senior CIA officials to defend the interrogation program as it came under growing scrutiny, including a lengthy memo asserting that the use of often brutal methods had saved thousands of civilian lives.

The documents also include new details about the death of Gul Rahman, a CIA detainee who died in a secret prision in Afghanistan called the "Salt Pit." Those documents outline in extensive detail what happened to Rahman before he froze to death in his cell. Other files include a CIA Inspector General report finding that the rendition of German citizen Khalid El-Masri was a case of mistaken identity.

The newly released CIA documents are available here.