CIA Used Gun, Drill in Interrogation

New details emerge of CIA interrogators' treatment of prisoners

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cia-report25-2009aug25,0,4353125.story
By Greg Miller August 25, 2009
The Obama administration releases parts of a 2004 report on the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation program. Prisoners were choked to the point of passing out and their families were threatened, it says.

Reporting from Washington - The Obama administration disclosed new cases of alleged abuse in the CIA's interrogation program today, issuing a report that described how prisoners were choked to the point of passing out and threatened with harm to their immediate families.

The newly declassified report by the CIA's inspector general also reveals that agency personnel were nervous almost from the inception of the interrogation program that one day they would face prosecution in U.S. or international courts.

The likelihood of that outcome increased today as Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. appointed a prosecutor to review a collection of CIA cases, setting the stage for a probe that could lead to criminal charges for CIA personnel.

The move was largely driven by the disturbing details contained in the 2004 inspector general report, a document that sent ripples of anxiety through the government when it was first issued but became available for public view -- at least in part -- for the first time today. Large sections of the report remained blacked out.

The document includes fresh details that had not been previously disclosed. Among them are that top Al Qaeda prisoners were told that their family members faced harm if detainees didn't yield information.