CIA Prisons to Be Evaluated in One-Year Review by Senate Panel

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=&sid=aJchF0ELduak

 

CIA Prisons to Be Evaluated in One-Year Review by Senate Panel

 

By James Rowley

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee will study how the CIA operated a secret network of prisons outside the U.S. to detain and interrogate suspected terrorists seized after the Sept. 11 attacks.

 

There is “a strong bipartisan basis” for the yearlong review that will evaluate intelligence the spy agency obtained from harsh interrogation tactics, said a statement from the panel’s Democratic chairwoman, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, and its top Republican, Missouri Senator Christopher Bond.

 

The study “will run parallel” to a review of Central Intelligence Agency interrogations that President Barack Obama ordered when he directed the CIA to shut down the prisons, the committee said. Obama ordered the CIA not to use harsh interrogation techniques such as water boarding, which simulates drowning.

 

The prisons were used to detain and question alleged al- Qaeda operatives such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self- described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Abu Zubaydah, another al-Qaeda operative.

 

President George W. Bush’s administration acknowledged the secret prisons in 2006 when it transferred Mohammed, Zubaydah and 12 other “high-value” detainees to the U.S. military prison camp operated at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

 

Adequate Description

 

The Senate panel will investigate whether the CIA “accurately described the detention and interrogation program” to lawmakers and other parts of the government, including the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

 

“It will consist of extensive document review and interviews” to “fully understand the creation and operation of the CIA detention and interrogation program,” the lawmakers said in their joint statement.

Legal opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel authorized harsh interrogation techniques and defined illegal torture as inflicting pain associated with organ failure or death. These so-called “torture memos” were rescinded by the Justice Department.

 

The Senate committee will also review whether interrogations were conducted “in compliance with official guidance” from the Justice Department, presidential directives known as findings and CIA policy, Feinstein and Bond said in their statement.

 

Receiving Assurances

 

CIA Director Leon Panetta told agency employees in a note that he had received assurances from Feinstein and Bond that “this review is a way for the committee to assess lessons learned” and not an attempt to blame CIA employees who followed legal guidance.

 

“What I will not support is an inquiry designed to punish those who acted in accord with guidance from the Department of Justice,” Panetta said.

 

Still, a Democratic member of the panel, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, said the review “will help bring to light some of the most horrific activities conducted under the past administration and help ensure that this country never goes down such a damaging and lawless path again.”

 

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net;

 

Last Updated: March 5, 2009 18:01 EST

 

 

 

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