CIA torture report: Agency leaders refused to punish officer 'involved' in death of detainee

A CIA officer having no disciplinary action taken against him after being "involved" in the death of a detainee is just one of a number of shocking stories about the organisation's conduct in its questioning of terror suspects that has been revealed in an explosive interrogation report.

The documents, released by the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, concluded that innocent people were detained and tortured using "brutal" methods, some which were used for weeks at a time.

On page 14 of the executive summary, details are highlighted about the CIA officer having no action taken against him following his role in the detainee's death at the detention centre codenamed "COBALT", believed to be in Afghanistan.

No action was taken because the CIA inspector, who had "identified wrongdoing" was "overruled by senior CIA leadership", the report states.

Despite the detainee's death, the CIA inspector was overruled by senior CIA leadership because they had been "motivated to extract any and all operational information" from the prisoner.

The report states: "On two occasions in which the CIA inspector general identified wrongdoing, accountability recommendations were overruled by senior CIA leadership.

"In one instance, involving the death of a CIA detainee at Cobalt, CIA Headquarters decided not to take disciplinary action against an officer involved because, at the time, CIA Headquarters had been 'motivated to extract any and all operational information' from the detainee."

Another situation where a CIA officer was not disciplined was related to a "wrongful detention", where the officer was not reprimanded because "mistakes should be expected in a business filled with uncertainty", the report claims.

"In another instance related to a wrongful detention, no action was taken against a CIA officer because, "[t]he Director strongly believes that mistakes should be expected in a business filled with uncertainty," and "the Director believes the scale tips decisively in favor of accepting mistakes that over connect the dots against those that under connect them." In neither case was administrative action taken against CIA management personnel."

The other key revelations from the report include allegations of cruelty such as "rectal rehydration" (a form of force-feeding detainees rectally), concerns from medical personnel that waterboarding sessions had become "a series of near drownings" and that such methods did not produce any key breakthrough intelligence to prevent threats to American national security.

US President Barack Obama released a statement that the report "documents a troubling programme" that "did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners".

He added the report "reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as a nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests".