The US Senate started its investigation of the CIA’s post 9/11 detention and interrogation methods over five years ago. The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reviewed over 6 million CIA documents and heard substantial testimony over the course of the investigation. The Senate concluded in its nearly 6,700 page report that the interrogation methods used by the CIA were ineffective and that the CIA deliberately misrepresented and deceived when reporting to or seeking authorization from the US Congress. An edited 600 page report of the Committee’s summary and findings was released to the public on December 9, 2014, after the committee voted to release the report in April 2014. The report included graphic description of the brutal techniques used on detainees. Methods that have been the source of particular scrutiny include “water boarding”, prolonged sleep deprivations and “rectal feeding” or “hydration.” The full report remains classified, but was shared in its entirety with the White House as well as the Departments of State, Defense, Justice and National Intelligence. The Department of Justice is not expected to bring charges against the CIA for these techniques, staying consistent with a decision in 2012 not to press charges in response to the committee investigation.

The decision to release the report was highly controversial. The committee at the time, made up of 8 Democrats and 7 Republicans, ultimately voted 11-3 in favor of releasing the summary report with one abstention. The three dissenting votes came from Republican Senators James Risch, Daniel Coats and Marco Rubio. Other Republicans, such as committee vice chairman Saxby Chambliss, voted to release the report despite his issues with its findings. Even after the vote to release, various political officials requested delays over concerns of violence, including a last minute request from US Secretary of State John Kerry. Support for the release came from advocacy groups such as the ACLU and Amnesty International, and other Senators from both parties, including Republicans John McCain and committee member Susan Collins. Senator McCain pleaded for the release of the report in an address to the Senate in the interest of transparency. Opponents, however, claimed that the sensitive nature of the information would spur violence in the Middle East or other affected regions. Senator Ted Cruz said he believed that the report would undermine national security. The CIA strongly refuted [PDF] the Senate Committee report’s conclusions. The CIA claimed it did not mislead congress and that the techniques were, in fact, effective. Former CIA directors, George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden, believed the release of the report was a political maneuver.

The release sparked dialogue about the issue of torture, including whether or not the techniques described in the report were torture. The report does not refer to the techniques as torture or address the legality of the techniques. Although President Obama did not weigh in on the issue of torture, he released a statement saying the findings were “contrary to [US] values] and vowed to “make sure [the US] never resort[s] to these methods again.”