CIA Interrogators Accused of Another Illegal Interrogation Technique

We have all heard about how CIA interrogators used water boarding and threats to pry information from known terrorists. Now, a new allegation as been reported. Interrogators blew smoke in a terrorist's face. Yes, that's right. They blew smoke.

CNS News reported:

Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the 9-11 commission report, was the mastermind of the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Nashiri was also the target of an "unauthorized" CIA interrogation technique (that had not been legally vetted by the Justice Department) that is described in a May 7, 2004, CIA inspector general's report that was partially declassified by the Obama administration this week.

CIA officers blew smoke in Nashiri's face, according to the report, and they used cigars.

The IG's office described this smoke-blowing as one of several "unauthorized or undocumented techniques" it discovered had been used in isolated incidents by CIA employees interrogating high-level al-Qaida terrorists.

"An Agency (redacted phrase) interrogator admitted that, in December 2002, he and another (redacted phrase) smoked cigars and blew cigar smoke in al-Nashiri's face during the interrogation," said the IG report.

The IG, however, was unable to clearly establish that the smoke-blowing was intended to force Nashiri to cough up what he knew about al-Qaida's plans.

Cheney asks Obama to declassify proof CIA interrogations worked

President Obama declassified interrogation techniques authorized for use by the CIA and the legal opinions surrounding them. He did this against the advice of the current CIA Director and several former Directors. They are concerned this will cause institutional timidity and fear of recrimination similar to what weakened intelligence gathering in the past. The justification for release was that the methods don't work anyway, and that those who are subjected to them will simply make up information in order to end their ordeal. Former Vice-President Dick Cheney is calling Obama's hand on that claim. He claims to have seen classified documents that prove the methods were effective and gained valuable intelligence. He is publicly calling for those documents to be released.

From the Sean Hannity show.

From the video:

DICK CHENEY: “One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort. And there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified.”

“I formally asked that they be declassified now. I haven't announced this up until now, I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.”

“And I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions.”