Backlash feared over CIA interrogations report

The U.S. hasn't seen any security backlash in the wake of the release of a report about CIA interrogations, but intelligence sources believe retaliation is still a possibility. The report gives vivid

News 12 Staff

Dec 10, 2014, 11:34 PM

Updated 3,432 days ago

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Backlash feared over CIA interrogations report
The U.S. hasn't seen any security backlash in the wake of the release of a report about CIA interrogations, but intelligence sources believe retaliation is still a possibility.
The report gives vivid and disturbing descriptions of "enhanced-interrogation" techniques, such as "rectal feeding," in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Still, some former CIA officials say those tactics didn't amount to torture.
"Torture is a legally defined term in statute," says former CIA attorney John Rizzo. "I did not believe -- at the time they were approved -- they were torture. Certainly, the Justice Department didn't conclude that and I do not believe it today."
The CIA says the report contains flaws and that people who were involved in the interrogations likely won't face legal repercussions.
"There was a law passed in 2005 that effectively gave immunity to all the people that were involved in this torture program," says legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
Some Republican lawmakers blasted the report as partisan. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) even called it a "pure political piece of crap."
Critics of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report caution that U.S. intelligence sources now face additional risk of retaliation.


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