CIA Report Reveals Interrogation Abuses

CIA Report Reveals Interrogator Threatened to Kill Detainee's Children

Posted by Nate Carlile, Think Progress at 3:00 PM on August 24, 2009.

A long-awaited CIA Inspector General report reveals that interrogators also threatened to sexually assault the mother of a key terror suspect.

A 2004 CIA Inspector General report reveals that interrogators threatened to kill the children and sexually assault the mother of a key terror suspect. The report, which examined the CIA's treatment of terror detainees, has now been partly declassified as a result of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union:

The document, released Monday by the Justice Department, says one interrogator said a colleague had told Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that if any other attacks happened in the United States, "We're going to kill your children."

Another interrogator allegedly tried to convince a different terror suspect detainee that his mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him -- though the interrogator in question denied making such a threat.

Attorney General Eric Holder will appoint a prosecutor to decide whether anti-torture laws were broken in prisoner abuse cases involving CIA interrogators and contractors. Holder will reportedly name John Durham to lead the inquiry. Durham is a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut.

Update: CIA Director Leon Panetta, who has reportedly been engaged in an angry confrontation with the White House over this issue, called the release of the inspector general's report on abuses "an old story" and said "the challenge is not the battles of yesterday, but those of today and tomorrow."

Update: Attorney General Holder released a statement, explaining: "Mr. Durham, who is a career prosecutor with the Department of Justice and who has assembled a strong investigative team of experienced professionals, will recommend to me whether there is sufficient predication for a full investigation into whether the law was violated in connection with the interrogation of certain detainees."