Document a Day: The Gun and Drill Incident

These pages are from the May 7, 2004, report of the CIA’s Inspector General on the agency’s Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation program, which even in its still heavily-redacted form is one of the most important documents unearthed to date. This passage summarizes the threatened execution of Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri by a CIA agent in a secret CIA prison in Thailand. Death threats are specifically prohibited under international and U.S. laws banning torture. But when the CIA’s Inspector General referred this case to the Justice Department that year, the agency received assurances from the Justice Department that it would not prosecute.

In August 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder asked Special Prosecutor John Durham to expand his criminal investigation into the destruction of videotapes of CIA interrogations to include incidents like this one, where CIA agents used interrogation techniques beyond those the Bush administration lawyers tried to argue were legal. Nine months later, Durham has yet to announce whether this or any other case will be referred for prosecution.

Documents:

• “Gun and drill” incident from CIA OIG report, May 2004 (document starts on page 40 of the report)

To read more about and see documentary evidence of the Bush administration’s torture program, go to thetorturereport.com.