Declassified Cables Detail Torture at CIA Director’s Secret Black Site

Heavily redacted documents detail torture of detainees

While it comes nearly three months too late to have any bearing on CIA Director Gina Haspel’s confirmation vote, a series of newly declassified cables are offering unprecedented insight into the specifics of torture carried out at the CIA black site Haspel was running.

The documents are available at the National Security Archive. They are heavily redacted, but it is speculated that they may have even been written by Haspel herself, and described the extended use of violence against detainees.

The documents involve a lot of flowery language, praising the “catlike” way interrogators entered the room before torturing suspects, and promising to make one of them suffer “in ways he never thought possible.”

Specifics of the CIA torture program have largely been withheld from the public, despite supposedly having ended years ago. Haspel’s role in that torture made her confirmation as CIA Director particularly controv4ersial, especially since President Trump has publicly espoused the merits of torture on several occasions.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.