After 9/11, when terrorist plots seemed to be everywhere, the CIA claimed that its enhanced interrogation techniques had helped to thwart a number of plots.
鈥淭he CIA used these examples to claim that its enhanced interrogation techniques were not only effective, but also necessary to acquire 鈥榦therwise unavailable鈥� actionable intelligence that 鈥榮aved lives,鈥� 鈥� the report said.
However, the Senate committee found this was not the case. In reviewing 20 of the 鈥渕ost frequent and prominent鈥� examples of such thwarted plots, it found that in some cases there was 鈥渘o relationship between the cited counterterrorism success and any information provided by detainees during or after the use鈥� of torture.
In the remaining cases, according to the report, the CIA said that the intelligence was the result of enhanced interrogation techniques when it was not. This included cases when the CIA obtained the information prior to the use of these techniques.
