Senate Committee Releases 'Torture Report'

Published December 9, 2014 at 9:06 AM PST

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Self-described 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, pictured here after his capture in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, was waterboarded by the CIA after his capture. He's known to have given false information under harsh interrogation, which has fueled debate about the value of those techniques. (Photo by U.S. forces via Wikimedia Commons)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who is chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is making public a long-delayed report about harsh interrogation techniques that were used on al-Qaida terrorism suspects after the 9/11 attacks.

The report concludes that the techniques were harsher and more widely used than previously admitted; use of the techniques failed to produce critical information; and CIA officials did not fully disclose information about the tactics known as “enhanced interrogation” in the Bush administration, but called “torture” by the Obama administration.

Tom Bowman, who covers the Pentagon for NPR, joins Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson to discuss the new information in the report released today.

Read/save a PDF of the 500-page report summary

Guest

Tom Bowman, Pentagon reporter for NPR. He tweets @TBowmanNPR.