CIA certified interrogators after two-week training

Dick Cheney

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Among numerous revelations in the CIA interrogations documents, released Monday, is information which suggests that the Agency haphazardly certified spies as “interrogators” after training them for only two weeks. Canadian newspaper The Toronto Star appears to be the only news source that has picked up on the revelation, noting that it takes twice that long to train an individual to drive a truck in the United States. It appears that the CIA resorted to the haphazard certification process shortly after 9/11; never prior to that time had the Agency been involved in the interrogation business on a large scale. The documents also show that, until 2003, Langley routinely supplied CIA interrogators with conduct rules that tended to change from case to case. The instructions were sometimes communicated to the interrogators via email or even orally. The revelations appear to contradict former US Vice President Dick Cheney’s assertions, made in February of 2008, that the CIA “enhanced interrogation” program was “run by highly trained professionals who understand their obligations under the law”.