The National Security Archive has obtained new details about the torture tactics of CIA director Gina Haspel and her mistaken belief that extreme measures were necessary.
The key document comes from November 2002, a little more than a year after 9/11 attacks. Top CIA officials feared another attack was coming. Haspel was running a “black site” in Thailand where suspected terrorists were held.
One of the newly released portions documents Haspel’s own intelligence failure in believing the al-Qaeda suspect had imminent attack information (what defenders of torture call the “ticking time bomb” rationalization).
Cable 11258 sent on November 16, 2002 admitted that the second torture session “produced little actionable threat information” but “left base officers guardedly optimistic that the aggressive procedures may already be having an impact on subject’s resistance posture.” Haspel wrote, “Although base has little doubt that subject is withholding actionable information, the shock of his first hours at [black site] appears to have focused him on our interests and on the severity of his predicament.”
The Archive notes, “The Senate Intelligence Committee report declassified in 2014 documents that the suspect in fact did not have imminent threat information, and had already confessed any useful intelligence during his prior captivity in Dubai.”
Source: Gina Haspel CIA Torture Cables’ Dates and Times Declassified | National Security Archive
