The gun and drill were used in two separate interrogation sessions
against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, one of the sources said. Al-Nashiri is
accused of plotting the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which left 17 U.S.
sailors dead.
The sources did not want to be identified because
the report, completed by the CIA's inspector general in 2004, has not
yet been made public. A federal judge in New York has ordered a
redacted version of the report released Monday as part of a lawsuit
filed by the ACLU.
The interrogations took place in the CIA's
secret prisons before 2006, when then-President George W. Bush moved
all detainees from such facilities to the federal prison in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, both sources said.
Details of the report were first published by Newsweek magazine late Friday.
Newsweek also said that, according to its sources citing the
inspector-general's report, interrogators staged mock executions to try
to frighten detainees into talking. In one instance, Newsweek reported,
a gun was fired in a room next to one terrorism suspect so he would
think another prisoner was being killed.
A CIA
spokesman would not talk about specifics of the inspector-general's
report but said all the incidents described in it have been reviewed by
government prosecutors.
"The CIA in no way endorsed behavior --
no matter how infrequent -- that went beyond formal guidance. This has
all been looked at; professionals in the Department of Justice decided
if and when to pursue prosecution. That's how the system was supposed
to work, and that's how it did work," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano
said.
One of the sources, a former intelligence official who is
familiar with the report, said that while the report "reaffirmed" the
interrogation program, it "also showed some had strayed off center."
The official said about a dozen cases of potential misconduct by
interrogators were referred to the Justice Department. Of those, only
one person was prosecuted, the official said, with the rest being
referred to the CIA accountability board, an internal disciplinary
board. Two people resigned rather than face the CIA board, the official
said.
This official said that when CIA leadership found out
about the drill incident, they were "angry as hell." The official
called it "nickel-and-dime foolishness" that was not tolerated. The
individual who used the drill was pulled from the program and "sharply
reprimanded," the official said.
Anthony D. Romero, executive
director of the ACLU, released a statement Sunday saying, "Leaked
portions of the CIA Inspector General's report offer more proof that
government officials committed serious crimes while interrogating
prisoners. So-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques' like mock
executions and threatening prisoners with guns and power drills are not
only reprehensible but illegal."
In anticipation of the release of the
report Monday, Romero added, "Releasing the report with minimal
redactions is essential to knowing what crimes were committed and who
was involved."
The release of the inspector-general's report comes as Attorney General Eric Holder
is considering whether to appoint a prosecutor to investigate the CIA
interrogation program, begun by the Bush administration after the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.