COCOMs on High Alert Following Release of CIA Torture Report

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered all combatant commanders “everywhere in the world” to be on high alert following the release of a report detailing the CIA’s brutal interrogation techniques conducted after the 9/11 attacks. Speaking to reporters in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Hagel said there is no “specific information or intelligence” that a retaliatory attack was imminent. However, he acknowledged the Defense Department was “concerned about the content” being released and the implications it might have across the globe. The 525-page executive summary released Tuesday summarizes some 6,900 pages of classified documents collected by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence during its five-and-a-half-year review of the CIA. It offers a scathing assessment of the agency’s practices, which it says were conducted “in violation of US law, treaty obligations, and our values” according to an opening letter from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), committee chairwoman. “The report documents a troubling program … and it reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as a nation, [but] they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts, or our national security interests,” said President Obama in a Dec. 9 statement. “Moreover, these techniques did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners,” he added, vowing to “make sure we never resort to those methods again.” (Feinstein statement.) (Full report; Caution, large-sized file.)