[MTVN]

The CIA carried out "brutal" interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the US, a US Senate report has said.

The summary of the report, compiled by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the CIA misled Americans about what it was doing.

The information the CIA collected this way failed to secure information that foiled any threats, the report said.

In a statement, the CIA insisted that the interrogations did help save lives.

"The intelligence gained from the programme was critical to our understanding of al-Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day," Director John Brennan said in a statement.

However, the CIA said it acknowledged that there were mistakes in the programme, especially early on when it was unprepared for the scale of the operation to detain and interrogate prisoners.

The programme - known internally as the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation programme - took place from 2002-07, during the presidency of George W Bush.

Suspects were interrogated using methods such as waterboarding, slapping, humiliation, exposure to cold and sleep deprivation.

'Significant damage'
Introducing the report to the Senate, Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein described the CIA's actions as a stain on US history.

"The release of this 500-page summary cannot remove that stain, but it can and does say to our people and the world that America is big enough to admit when it's wrong and confident enough to learn from its mistakes," she said.

"Under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured," she added.

Earlier, President Obama responded to the report, saying the methods used were inconsistent with US values.

"These techniques did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners," he said in a statement.

Reacting to the release of the report summary, the Senate Republican leaders insisted that the methods used helped in the capture of important suspects and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

"Claims included in this report that assert the contrary are simply wrong," Senators Mitch McConnell and Saxby Chambliss said in a joint statement.

The Senate committee's report runs to more than 6,000 pages, drawing on huge quantities of evidence, but it remains classified and only a 480-page summary has been released.

Mr Obama halted the CIA interrogation programme when he took office in 2009.

Earlier this year, he said that in his view the methods used to question al-Qaeda prisoners amounted to torture.

Publication of the report had been delayed amid disagreements in Washington over what should be made public.

Security was increased at US facilities around the world ahead of publication.

Embassies and other sites were taking precautions amid "some indications" of "greater risk", a White House spokesman said.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said he had ordered all top US military commanders to be on high alert.

Its main points include the following:

- At no time did coercive interrogation techniques lead of collection of intelligence on imminent threats

- None of 20 cases of counterterrorism "successes" attributed to the techniques led to unique or otherwise unavailable intelligence

- The CIA misled politicians and public, giving inaccurate information to obtain approval for using techniques

- The CIA claimed falsely that no senators had objected to the programme.

- Management of the programme was deeply flawed, for example the operation of the second detention facility, known as COBALT

- At least 26 of 119 known detainees in custody during the life of the programme were wrongfully held, and many held for months longer than they should have been

- Aggressive techniques were used on suspects from the start, despite CIA claims that interrogations would begin with less coercive methods

- Methods included sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours, often standing or in painful positions

- Waterboarding was physically harmful to prisoners, causing convulsions and vomiting

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30401100

Is it any wonder that a lot of people see the West as mistrustful hypocrites when this sh*t gets carried out in secret and then explicitly lied about? Well done to those Senators who brought it to light