WASHINGTON — Intelligence and military officials under the Bush administration began preparing to conduct harsh interrogations long before they were granted legal approval for doing so — and weeks before the CIA had captured its first high-ranking terrorist suspect, Senate investigators have concluded.
Previously secret memos and interviews show CIA and Pentagon officials exploring ways to break Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees in early 2002, up to eight months before Justice Department lawyers approved the use of waterboarding and nine other harsh methods, investigators found.
The findings are contained in a Senate Armed Services Committee report scheduled for release today that also documents multiple warnings — from legal and trained interrogation experts — that the techniques could backfire and might violate U.S. and international law.
One Army lieutenant colonel who reviewed the program warned in 2002 that coercion “usually decreases the reliability of the information because the person will say whatever he believes will stop the pain,” according to the report.
A second official, briefed on plans to use aggressive techniques on detainees, was quoted the same year as asking: “Wouldn’t that be illegal?”
The methods became the basis for harsh interrogations not only in CIA secret prisons but also in Defense Department camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and in Afghanistan and Iraq, the report said.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the committee, said the findings show a direct link between the early policy decisions and abuses of detainees.
“Senior officials sought out information on, were aware of training in, and authorized the use of abusive interrogation techniques,” Levin said. “Those senior officials bear significant responsibility for creating the legal and operational framework for the abuses.”
The Obama administration’s chief intelligence officer told the White House last week that the harsh interrogations produced “valuable” information, but he added that it was impossible to tell whether the same intelligence leads might have been obtained using less-controversial methods.
In any case, the damage to the country’s image caused by the use of waterboarding and similar techniques exceeded any benefit that might have been gained, said Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence.
Blair summarized in the statement an assessment he gave his staff in a memo last week, according to U.S. officials familiar with the document. Blair said he supported Obama’s decision to ban so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, and he rejected assertions by former Vice President Dick Cheney and others that the methods were crucial to protecting the country.
Blair added that he had supported Obama’s decision last week to order the release of Justice Department memos that authorized the use of harsh interrogation.
