Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs)
CIA records reviewed by the SSCI reveal that 39 prisoners were subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" whilst in CIA detention. EITs were a set of eleven specific techniques approved by the Department of Justice for use by the CIA: the attention grasp; walling; facial hold; facial slap; cramped confinement; wall standing; stress positions; sleep deprivation; waterboard; use of diapers; and use of insects. A twelfth proposed technique, mock burial, was not approved.
In some cases, the required authorisation from CIA Headquarters was not sought before the use of EITs. In other cases, the techniques were used in ways which had not be authorised by the DoJ (see the extensive use of the waterboard on Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, for example). Still others were subjected to torture methods which lay outside of the formally approved EITs (such as the forced rectal feeding of Majid Khan, and the use of a drill on Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri). And throughout, it is important to remember that many of the most serious abuses - from rape to electrocution - were committed after prisoners had been rendered by the CIA into the custody of foreign governments. As such, they were outside the focus of the SSCI report, although are documented in these pages.
Use our prisoner search page to search for, and access, the profiles for each of the 39 individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques during their detention in a CIA secret prison.
