WASHINGTON — The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to launch an investigation of the CIA’s detention and interrogation programs under President George W. Bush.
The investigation is aimed at uncovering new information about the origins of the programs as well as scrutinizing how they were executed — including the conditions at clandestine CIA prison sites and the interrogation regimens used to break al-Qaeda prisoners — according to Senate aides familiar with the plans.
Officials said the inquiry was not designed to determine whether CIA officials broke laws.
“The purpose here is to do fact-finding in order to learn lessons from the programs and see if there are recommendations to be made for detention and interrogations in the future,” said a senior Senate aide who described the plans on condition of anonymity because they had not been made public.
