The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA program that included torturing al-Qaida detainees provides eight “primary” examples in which the CIA said it obtained good intelligence as a result of what it called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” and the Senate panel’s conclusions that the information was available elsewhere and without resorting to brutal interrogations.
A look at those examples of the CIA’s claims and the Senate’s counterclaims, according to the Senate report:
JOSE PADILLA
THE CIA SAID U.S. citizen Jose Padilla was implicated in the so-called Dirty Bomb/Tall Buildings plotting. Terror leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammad tasked Padilla in 2002 with conducting an operation using natural gas to explode tall buildings in the United States, later known as the “Tall Buildings Plot.” Over the next few years, the CIA cited the capture of Padilla before he could pull off such a plot as a prime example of how “key intelligence collected from (High Value Detainee) interrogations after applying interrogation techniques” had “enabled CIA to disrupt terrorist plots” and “capture additional terrorists.” It also said the information was otherwise unavailable and saved lives.
THE SENATE REPORT SAYS the CIA first received reporting on the threat posed by Padilla from a foreign government. Eight days later, al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah gave the FBI information on the plot without names, four months before the CIA began using its harsh interrogation techniques on Zubaydah, and after the intelligence community had concluded that Padilla’s plots were infeasible.