yesterday we learned all this detail about the torture of abu zubaydah. people who tried to justify the way abu zubaydah got treated will often cite this ticking timebomb scenario, where a timebomb is ticking and the guy that knows where it's going to go off, you have to torture him to get information out of him quickly. you to torture people because you have to get them to talk fast. abu zubaydah, part of his torture was they put him in total confinement for 47 days before they asked him a single question, in order to soften him up. apparently they didn't think whatever he had to say was all that urgent. after 47 days of zero human contact, zero questioning, he went straight into 17 days of torture including waterboarding him over 80 times. we now have all this incredible detail about how they treated abu zubaydah. harrowing reading that case. but it is not a historical case. abu zubaydah still right now is in u.s. custody. he's still ours, still a guest of the u.s. taxpayers currently residing at guantanamo. these guys are still around. these things the

abu zubaydah was interrogated by suffant. contractors were sent in. they stripped him naked. blasted music in his cell. went ton to water board him. they were part after new cia torture program. they were sent to torture the prisoner even though he had already been talking without tore touring him. people make the case that rashalal for torturing people is that there is no time to waste. a time bomb is ticking somewhere. but the cia contractors who came in and took over for sufant and his partner seemed to have plenty of time for this guy. first stage was they put him in solitary confinement without human contact for 47 days before ever asking him a question. after 47 days of zero human contact they went into torture

a particular note was the treatment of abu zubaydah over a span of 17 days in august of 2002. this involved nonstop interrogation and abuse. 24/7. from august 4th to august 21st. and included multiple forms of deprivation and physical assault. the description of this period, first written up by our staff in early 2009 while senator rockefeller was chairman, is what prompted this full review. but the inaccurate and incomplete descriptions go far beyond that. the cia provided inaccurate memoranda and explanations to the department of justice while its legal counsel was considering the legality of the coercive techniques. in those communications, to the department of justice, the cia claimed the following. the coercive techniques would not be used with excessive repetition. detainees would always have an opportunity to provide information prior to the techniques. the techniques were to be used in progression starting with the least progressive and proceeding only if needed. medical personnel would make sure that interrogations would not cause the interrogations and highly trained

abu zubaydah was interrogated by suffant. contractors were sent in. they stripped him naked.sted music in his cell. went ton to water board him. they were part after new cia torture program. they were sent to torture the prisoner even though he had already been talking without tore touring him. people make the case that rashalal for torturing people is that there is no time to waste. a time bomb is ticking somewhere. but the cia contractors who came in and took over for sufant and his partner seemed to have plenty of time for this guy. first stage was they put him in solitary confinement without human contact for 47 days before ever asking him a question. after 47 days of zero human contact they went into torture including water boarding him. instead of talking, which he had been doing before torturing began, instead of revealing what he knew about al qaeda, well, the elite fbi interrogator, sufat, whose work to that point had been successful and productive, he described what happened next in that senate testimony in 2009 from behind that screen. >> when we ipter gated him, u

officers also planned to cremate abu zubaydah should he not survive his interrogation. source: c.i.a. cable july 15, 2002. after the use i the news, the ie committee held a hearing on the matter on may 12, 2004. without disclosing any details of its own interrogation program, c.i.a. director john mclaughlin testified that c.i.a. interrogations were nothing like what was depicted at abu ghraib, the united states prison in iraq where detainees were abused by american personnel. this, of course, was false. c.i.a. detaineeses at one facility described as a dungeon were kept in complete darkness, constantly shackled in isolated cells with loud noise or music and only a bucket to use for human waste. the u.s. bureau of prisons personnel went to that location in november 2002 and according to a contefn rainious internal c.i.a. e-mail, told c.i.a. officers they had -- quote -- "never been in a facility where individuals are so sensory deprived." end quote. again source: c.i.a. e-mail sender and recipient redacted, december 5, 2002. throughout the program, multiple c.i.a. detain

cables describing the interrogation sessions of abu zubaydah. it's been very difficult but i believe documentation and the findings' inclusions will make clear how this program was morally, legally, and administratively misguided and that this nation should never again engage in these tactics. let me now turn to the contents of the study. as i noted, we have 20 findings and conclusions, which fall into four general categories. first, the c.i.a.'s enhanced interrogation techniques were not an effective way to gather intelligence information. second, the c.i.a. provided extensive amounts of inaccurate information about the operation of the program and its effectiveness to the white house, the department of justice, congress, the c.i.a. inspector general, the media, and the american public. third, the c.i.a.'s management of the program was inadequate and deeply flawed. and, fourth, the c.i.a. program was far more brutal than people were led to believe. let me describe each category in more detail. the first set of findings and conclusions concern t

then you mentioned abu zubaydah earlier. he's the living proof of the fact that they have been deceitful about how that torture program contributed to getting evidence from him. as you know, you've had the fbi agent who was in charge of this on your show. that all came out before they brought in the torturer -- >> he provided useful information under fbi techniques that were not coercive. they started torturing him thereafter and got nothing else useful from him. >> they'll say that the torture program -- i should say that the interrogation program got this out. but what they don't distinguish is the legitimate interrogation done by fbi and cia officials and this ham handed, amateurish contractor run torture program which does not. >> senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island, i find you to be a clear speaker on these issues. >> good to be on your show. thank you. >> we've got a lot more ahead tonight including my other senate guest tonight who is elizabeth warren. that's just ahead. nose and relieve your other allergy symp

so during a five day time period, abu zubaydah got less than 10 hours of sleep.t the majority does not acknowledge that this was an enhanced interrogation. in light of these facts, the study's claims that the fpi was exclusively using rapport building techniques is nothing short of being dishonest. more important, the actionable intelligence gleaned from enhanced interrogation of abu zubaydah that started in apri april 2002 serve as the foundation for the capture of additional terrorists and the disruption of the plots those captured terrorists were planning. his information was also used to gather additional actionable intelligence from these newly captured terrorists which in turn led to a series of successful capture operations and plot disruptions. by the study's own count, the numerous interrogations of abu zubaydah resulted in 766 sole source disseminate intelligence reports. now, that's an awful lot of actionable intelligence collected under the cia program that this study tries to quietly sweep under the carpet in an effort to support its false headline t

he used to represent zubaydah and this seems like a broken human being. is that the man you represented? is there anyone there left to charge or run through a legal process. >> i have to be somewhat cautious around client sensitivities, but i can say he and other torture survivors who work with suffer the predicable consequences which is to shatter people, to break them. rectal hydration which is a form of aggressive sexual assault. >> this term i've encountered before in my life. it sounds like forced feeding down the tube. it's simply a means of degrading somehow. >> clearly. that is the point of this interrogation program. it's so many of these brutal, sadistic, torture techniques. people watching this saying these people are associated with people who murdered 3,000 americans. and whether it was wrong or not, i'm going not going to sit here and feel a whole lot of sympathy for your clients. >> i don't necessarily ask them to have sympathy for our clients. i expect them to have sympathy for a democracy and torture is the antithesis of what democracies

beginning with the first detainee, abu zubaydah, and continuing with numerous others, the s.d.i c.i.a. applied its sod enhanced intier ga interrogation techniques for days and weeks at a time on one detainee. in contrast, th to c.i.a. representations, detainees were subjected to the most aggressive techniques immediately -- stripped naked, diapered, physically struck and put in various physical stress positions for long periods of time. they were deprived of sleep for days. in one case up to 180 hours. that's 7 1/2 days over a week with no sleep, usually standing or in stress positions, at times with their hands tied together over their heads chained to the ceiling.

thousands and thousands of absolutely verifiable intelligence came out of khalid sheikh mohammed, abu zubaydah. the information was no doubt accurate and helpful to us. >> i want to point out, bob, the current director of the cia, john brennan, he was a career cry official. but he was appointed, nominated to be the cia director by president obama. the cia yesterday put out a statement on this very specific point that we're seeing. it says, information that cia obtained from detainees through this enhanced interrogation, played a role in combination with other streams of intelligence in finding osama bin laden. so if john brennan and the cia say this right now, you say what? >> well, listen, i agree with bill harlow. the cia obviously has a position on this. they're not making things up. but what we really need to do is see the interrogation reports and compare them with all the other documentation. it may turn out that the cia is right. but right now, this has become too partisan. we're not getting at the truth. and i think it would behoove the cia to make its case just as it's made its case t

abu zubaydah repeatedly waterboarded became completely unresponsive with bubbles rising through his open mouth. internal cia records called a waterboarding 183 times a series of near drownings. torture that wasn't even effective, according to the report. >> it produced little useful intelligence to help us track down the perpetrators of 9/11 or prevent new attacks and atrocities. >> reporter: the cia issued a lengthy and detailed statement saying the program was legal and gained the country useful intelligence, but also acknowledging mistakes were made. barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. >>> a united nations counterterrorism official says people who participated in the cia program are part of a, quote, criminal conspiracy and they must face justice. but will it ever happen? well, i talked about that earlier with cnn's senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. >> the one possibility, but it's very remote involves the concept known as universal jurisdiction. >> and how does that work? >> well, it hasn't worked very many times. the most famous example was when a prosecutor in spain sought to brin

specifically, the facts demonstrate that abu zubaydah was subjected to around the clock interrogation that included more than four days of dietary manipulation, nudity and more than 126 hours, which is about five days, of sleep deprivation during a 136-hour period by the time the f.b.i. finished up the 8 1/2 hour interrogation shift in which abu zubaydah finally yielded the identification of jose padilla. so during a five-day time period, abu zubaydah got less than 10 hours of sleep yet the majority does not acknowledge this was an enhanceed interrogation. in light of these facts, the study's claims that the f.b.i. was exclusively using rapport-building techniques is nothing short of being dishonest. more important, the actionable intelligence gleaned from the enhanced interrogation of abu zubaydah that started in april of 2002 served as the foundation for the capture of additional terrorists and the disruption of the -- disruption of the plots those captured terrorists were planning. his information was also used to gather additional actionable intelligence from these newly captured

joining me now the attorney who represents abu zubaydah. thank you for joining us.is your view of torture and what it achieves or doesn't? >> before i go to that, i have to correct something. you identified my client as a member of al qaeda, this report, this is the most comprehensive examination of all the material that's been collected since the program was created, makes clear that he was not. buried away on page 410 of the report -- >> just to make sure, you have to correct what i said if you're going to correct it. was he ever called a senior lieutenant? >> absolutely. the cia now agrees -- >> well, then don't correct me. >> i don't want to quibble. if you and i are in agreement that he's not the person they represented him to be, we'll move on. >> if you want to respond to what i said, okay. >> now you're asking me what i view about torture. i agree with joan, it's a bad idea, we shouldn't do it. it's wrong. >> do you think it achieves answers that are useful? >> the evidence in this case, it did not. what it uncovered is either false or could have been gotten

they described brutal, round-the-clock interrogations, especially of abu zubaydah, in which multiple coercive techniques were used in combination and with substantial repetition. it was an ugly, visceral description. the summary also indicated that abu zubaydah and train 11 did not come as a result of the use of the so-called eit's, provide the kind of intelligence that led the cia to stop terrorist plots or arrest additional suspects. as a result, i think it's fair to say the entire committee was concerned, and it approved the scope of an investigation by a vote of 14-1, and the work you began. in my march 11, 2014, 4 speech about the study, i described how in 2009 the committee came to an agreement with the new cia director, leon panetta, for access to documents and other records about the cia's detention and interrogation program, so i won't repeat that here. from 2009 until 2012, our staff conducted a massive and unprecedented review of cia records. draft sections of the report were produced by late 2011 and shared with the full committee. the final report was completed in decemb

abu zubaydah. he suffered sleep deprivation for 17 days as part of his interrogation. and that's just the beginning of it all. the brutality is shocking. the report reveals at least five detainees were subjected to what it calls rectal feeding. interrogation procedures that went on for months. at least one detainee died from hypothermia. >> stripped naked, diapered, physically struck and put in various painful stress positions for long periods of time. they were deprived of sleep for days. >> reporter: one detainee had his lunch pureeed and poured into his rectum. much of the information kept from president george w. bush's own secretary of state. >> there are cia records stating that colin powell wasn't told about the program at first because there were concerns that, and i quote, powell would blow his stack if he were briefed. >> reporter: a former top cia official says some of the details were held close. >> those who needed to know were absolutely brought in and made parties to the conspiracy. as i said, we were very, very clear about what it was that we intended t

we briefed her specifically on the use of the enhanced interrogation tech nieces on abu zubaydah. she knew back in september of 2002 every one of our enhanced interrogation -- >> let me ask you specifically. did you tell her about waterboarding? did you tell her -- >> gentlemen. >> yes. >> -- about sleep deprivation? >> yes, i did. >> did you telling her about slapping, pushing into walls, all of the techniques? >> i briefed her on all of the techniques. these people were fully aware of all of the techniques given to us and approved bit office of legal counsel at justice. >> and did, just to take the example you've given us, nancy pelosi, did she ever object to the techniques that you mentioned? >> she never objected to the techniques at all. the only one that objected to any of this, and it was more of a caution, was jane harman in 2003 when she says, be careful because the perception will be in the future that you did this to hide something. but she was the only person who objected to anything. >> how about jay rockefeller, chairman of the senate intelligence committee? there ha

. >> reporter: her report says abu zubaydah, a top al qaeda associate, spent a total of 266 hours inarge coffin-sized confinement box. at one point, waterboarding left him completely unresponsive with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth. in all, the report says, at least 39 prisoners were subjected to harsh interrogation between 2002 and 2009, sometimes before conventional methods had been exhausted. 9/11 mastermind khalid sheikh mohammed endured a series of near-drownings which prompted him to share false intelligence ic later recanted. the tactics were devised by a pair of outside psychologists referred to as dunbar and swigert. the report claims neither had any experience as an interrogator, nor did either have specialized knowledge of al qaeda. yet the c.i.a. eventually outsourced 85% of the workforce for detention and interrogation to their company, paying them $81 million. at one detention site in parkistan, the report says detainees were kept in total darkness, shackled to the wall in 45-degree temperatures. one prisoner, gul rahman, died in 2002, apparently from hypot

. >> reporter: the first terrorist detained, abu zubaydah, a key al qaeda operative, was waterboarded 83 times at a cia black site. after convulsing and vomitting, in one session he became completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth. kept in a coffin-size box for 11 days, he was told the only way he would leave the facility was in a coffin. today's report concluded that despite the extreme interrogation, zubaydah had no new information about future plots. eventually, even the cia team began to fall apart. "it seems the collective opinion that we should not go much further. several on the team profoundly affected. some to the point of tears and choking up." cia officers were operating at black sites from afghanistan to thailand to poland, interrogating 119 detainees and some of the interrogators themselves, the report says, included individuals with workplace anger management issues and had reportedly admitted to sexual assault. >> history will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and a willingness to face an ugly truth and say neve

let's look at abu zubaydah. they held him hostage -- >> you may have your talking points, but you're sitting here in this morally superior way -- >> i'm just following the law. the law says torture's a crime. >> i got that. but the justice department at the time ruled enhanced interrogation is not torture. my question to you is if there's somebody of knowledge of a nuclear weapon about to go off in a major city which is not that farfetched, i don't think, do you have any limits to extract that information? >> sean, that situation has never come up -- >> if it does come up -- >> sean -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> look at the real world. >> this is the real world. >> zubaydah was held for 47 days before waterboarding. he was singing while they were treating him well and then they started torturing him and he stopped. so stop with these hypotheticals -- >> i'm not going to stop with the hypotheticals. >> in the real world torture got them nothing. >> are you critical of president obama and the use of drone strike

abu zubaydah became completely unresponsive with bubbles rising through his open full mouth.cia records called khalid sheikh mohammed's waterboardings close to drowning. >> it produced little useful intelligence to help us track down the perpetrators of 9/11 or prevent new attacks and atrocities. >> the cia did issue a detailed and lengthy response saying what it did was legal, that it did get intelligence that helped prevent future attacks but also acknowledging that some mistakes were made. carol? >> barbara starr reporting live from the pentagon this morning. >>> this new threat of extremist attacks brings fresh urgency to capitol hill. minutes from now, congress will refocus its scrutiny on the deadly failures to protect the u.s. consulate in benghazi. house select committee is reviewing the 2012 attack that killed an an ambassador and three other americans. what lessons have been learned and applied to protect u.s. facilities and americans abroad. cnn global affairs correspondent elise labott joins us from washington with more. >> good morning, carol. this house select p

today's report concluded that despite the extreme interrogation, zubaydah had no new information about future plots. eventually, even the cia team began to fall apart. "it seems the collective opinion that we should not go much further. several on the team profoundly affected. some to the point of tears and choking up." cia officers were operating at black sites from afghanistan to thailand to poland, interrogating 119 detainees and some of the interrogators themselves, the report says, included individuals with workplace anger management issues and had reportedly admitted to sexual assault. >> history will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the willingness to face and ugly truth and say, "never again." >> and martha, the report reveals that two of the detainees being punished were actually on our side, they were our own informants? >> reporter: that's right, david. two of the detainees shackled for 24 hours in a standing position were later found to be informants for the cia, who had been trying to share intelligence with the agency. and here's another st

i want to correct one thing she said about abu zubaydah. he was denied sleep for seven days, not 17 days. during a 17-day period in the month of august, he was the victim of these e.i.t.s for some 17 days -- >> enhanced interrogation techniques? >> yes. 24/7. so there's confusion there and i wanted to straighten it out. i think you've done a good job certainly of hyping the warnings. is it possible that something would happen? yes. but it's possible that something happens even without this. there have been beheadings, there have been attacks without this report coming out. this doesn't mean that we shouldn't clean our house. it doesn't mean that an intelligence committee that has worked for 5 1/2 years to put together a cogent report that we believe will stand the test of time shouldn't release it. the world is an unstable place. you know as well as i do, isil is pure evil. they may seize upon it, they may not. but they are going to continue to behead, they are going to continue to destroy, they are going to continue to kill innocent people

al qaeda operative abu zubaydah who was subjected to approved waterboarding, seen her in a demonstrationecame completely unresponsive with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth. former cia officials, members of the bush administration and some senate republicans say the report doesn't tell the whole picture and can do more harm than good. >> it will endanger cia personnel, sources in future intelligence operations. >> reporter: president obama spoke about the report with jorge ramos, anchor of fusion, abc's sister network. >> part of what sets us apart is when we do something wrong, we action the gentleman. >> reporter: president obama banned many of the techniques details in this report. the president wanted it released for transparency and to show that america can learn from its mistakes. t.j., reena? >> karen travers, thank you. >>> one more shocking finding from that cia report. two psychologists who designed the enhanced interrogation techniques were paid more than $80 million for the project. that's even though they themselves were never interrogators nor did they have any sp

and zubaydah, america's first big get in the war against al cay that, he talked to his interrogators. over the course of that interrogation, he told detailed information about the inner workings of al-qaida. he revealed the the al-qaida supervisor for the 9/11 operation. they did not know he was al-qaida. once they learned that, our country learned, basically, who done it. right? which terrorist group attacked us. that f.b.i. interrogation was successful. it produced real information that the u.s. needed and was able to act on. but then something changed. the c.i.a. sent in some new guys to start a whole different kind of questioning. and these contractors were not doing things in the usual way. they stripped him naked, they blasted loud music into his cell, they eventually went onto waterer board him dozens of times. these contractors were bart of a new c.i.a. torture program. they were sent to torture this al cay that prisoner, help though he had already been talking withotalk talking without torturing. frequently, people make the case that it's supposed to be that there's no time t

and so the first detainee really was zubaydah.n off a roof in late march 2002, put into cia custody, and the cia admits it was wholly unprepared for this mission. and it did the best it could and it sought both legal and policy approval from the justice department. so there are many mistakes that were made and the agency officials will admit that today, but they also want people to understand that the twin towers were lying in a heap of ruin at ground zero. they were doing what they thought was necessary to defend the country. and in addition, brooke, i think it's important -- >> yeah. >> -- at that time, members of congress were yelling at the agency saying this has been a colossal intelligence failure, get any information you can about al qaeda. who are they? whether there are attack plans, how can we stop the next attack? and that context is important. >> i'm glad you bring that up. i'm sitting here searching. i have this quote from chairwoman feinstein essentially say, yes, i was very mindful of those days and weeks directly a

we didn't use any stress positions with zubaydah because he had an injury. >> okay. >> so what happened just so the people know because this is the thing the people don't know when they hear is we didn't just go in there and start waterboarding abu zubaydah. we practiced the emergency responses we were going to do, we went through where each person was going to be if there happened to be an emergency. and then and only then when we felt that we could do it safely without, you know, causing permanent damage or violating the rules, we did it. >> and there was medical personnel in the room. >> there was always medical personnel. there were medical personnel, there were psychologists that were independent of the interrogation there. there were language experts although he spoke english pretty well. there were language experts. there were subject matter experts. and there were the people who had the command and control. there was also a traditional interrogation expert that, you know, traditional law enforcement expert. >> need a quick answer and we're going to go to break. we're going to co

> reporter: a former cia official explained why they needed more from al qaeda suspects like abu zubaydah. >> he had stopped talking and we knew that there were threats against us including a second wave of attacks and we needed to do something different. >> reporter: democrats behind the reporter now questioning the current cia director, john brennan. >> you're comfortable with him running the cia? >> not at this point. john brennan on thursday really opened the door to the possibility of torture being used again. >> it probably would be a good idea in the future to have leaders of the cia come from outside of the cia. >> reporter: on that unprecedented news conference job brennan said there were some agents that may have gone too far but refused to call it torture. >>> it is another rainy week ahead for an already drenched california. meteorologist bill karins has more on that. good morning. >> just what the doctor ordered, right? >> they needed it for so long. >> the rain is coming down this morning in the bay area. another one to two inches possible, especially at any elevation. just

. >> abu zubaydah, a top al qaeda associate, spent a total of 266 hours in a large coffin-sized confinement box. >> and this is not pleasant to recount, but many incidences of so-called rectal rehydration. ♪ i just gotta shake, shake, shake. ♪ shake it off, shake it off. whoo-hooo♪ sorry, you should probably get a pair of these tragedy-cancelling headphones. really makes it better. now, folks i gotta ask, what is the point of telling us all this rough stuff? no one still thinks that it's ever okay to do something like this. >> for the record, i still think it's okay to do something like this, as long as it's done in a fair way. i think the torture-- i'm sorry, the enhanced interrogation technique, i think it serves a purpose. >> stephen: another, okay. so eric is in favor of torture-- i'm sorry, torture-- if ( laughter ) ( applause ) if-- this is very important-- if it's done in a fair way. you know, as long as they bring enough human waste buckets for everyone in the secret prison. i am with fox's andrea tantaros who is stoked for america come whatev. >> the united states of america is awe

. >> and this one, to abu zubaydah, and laid in a coffin-sized box and 29 hour, and then depth of 2.5 feet, and a height of 2.5 feet, and on page 22, is that going to meet the definition of torture? >> that is one of the approved techniques. in terms of torture, i guess what i do, and i was struck for example by the statements by bud daye and leo forcnis and captured by the vietnamese and subjected to extreme torture and all of them said that waterboarding was not torture, and you can look for various definitions, and we did what was required and making sure that we were not violating the the law, and the law as interpreted by the justice department and the legal department was clear and the techniques use and the president authorized that produced results and gave us the information that we needed to safeguard the nation against further attacks and to track down those guilty of 9/11 did in fact work. now the senate committee and the partisan operation and none of those involved and the -- >> with well, the the cia -- >> and chuck, chuck, if you will look at it, and look at what those

another, bin laden lieutenant abu zubaydah was waterboarded for 2 1/2 weeks 24/7 until he passed out. interrogators had to call in medics to revive him. 9/11 plotter khalid sheikh mohammed was waterboarded, nearly drowned 183 times, slammed against walls until, the report says, he started making up stories, a fake nuclear suitcase bomb and a claim that al qaeda was recruiting african-american muslims in montana. abdul al nashiri was blindfolded threatened with a gun near his head and ohio -- a cordless power drill, and given forced enem enemas. all this at first also hidden from the secretary of state colin powell. >> there are cia records stating that colin powell wasn't told about the program at first because there were concerns, and i quote, that powell would blow his stack. >> reporter: republicans warned the report could inspire more terrorism. >> it could be used to incite unrest and even attacks against our service members, other personnel overseas, and our international partners. >> reporter: so does cia director john brennan, acknowledging some mistakes but insisting the inte