U.S. Senate to review CIA´s handling of terrorist suspects

Source: Xinhua | 03-06-2009 09:05

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate said on Thursday that it would start a one-year review of the Central Investigation Agency's handling of detained terrorist suspects.

In a joint announcement, Senate Intelligence Committee Democratic leader Dianne Feinstein and her Republican counterpart, Kit Bond, said that the review was to be conducted to assess the legality and effectiveness of CIA's tactics in the interrogation of terrorist suspects, including those that were widely considered torture.

The review would look into questions like how the CIA handled its detention and determined if detainees possessed relevant information.

They also include whether CIA obtained useful intelligence by means of both standard interrogation techniques and "enhanced" methods, and whether it has accurately described its handling of suspected terrorists to the Justice Department and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The senators said that the conclusion of the review would help shape detention and interrogation policies in the future that have been mandated by President Barack Obama.

However, no punishment would be resulted from the review on those that have carried out the interrogations, they clarified.

The CIA has been widely criticized by U.S. lawmakers, human rights groups and other countries for controversial tactics to interrogate terrorist suspects detained after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Since campaign for presidency, Obama has publicly denounced usage of torture and immediately ordered after inauguration a review of CIA handling of terrorist suspects during Bush's administration.

Editor:Zhang Yun