Media: CIA releases declassified documents on interrogations

Baku. 15 June. REPORT.AZ/ A year and a half later, under pressure from at least two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, the spy agency is pulling back the curtain further on the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation Program by releasing declassified versions of 50 documents related to the controversial effort.

Report informs citing the Politico, the newly disclosed CIA records show internal signs of concern about the program ranging from nervousness to disgust. One memo urged people not to make written records of their worries that aspects of the interrogation effort might be illegal.

The records posted online Tuesday also include a report on an internal investigation into the death of a detainee at a CIA-run interrogation site called the Salt Pit in Afghanistan in November 2002. The report concludes that the prisoner, Gul Rahman, died after being shackled to a bare concrete floor in a detention cell while wearing only a sweatshirt in 31-degree weather.

Rahman's death led to years of further investigation by the U.S. government. An initial Justice Department investigation during the George W. Bush administration resulted in no charges being filed.

The records published Tuesday also include a draft of a highly unusual request from CIA to the Justice Department for a promise in advance that no one would be charged criminally for waterboarding an Al Qaeda operative known as Abu Zubaydah. It's unclear if any such promise was ever given.

Most of the documents are heavily redacted. One memo containing reflections of a CIA medical officer on the interrogation program is marked "page denied" on virtually every page.