The newly declassified revelations that Central Intelligence Agency interrogators sexually assaulted a detainee in ways not previously detailed publicly should come as no surprise. The methods — videotaping the detainee naked, repeatedly touching or pouring ice water on his genitals — may be news, but the use of sexual violence by CIA interrogators is well documented in the summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA detention and interrogation released six months ago.

The Senate torture report is a graphic testament to official deception and brutality. It provides stark evidence that CIA interrogators threatened a number of detainees with sexual assault and actually raped others.

According to the Senate report, CIA personnel subjected at least five detainees to “rectal feeding,” described in one case as pureeing of the contents of a lunch tray and infusing the mash into the detainee’s rectum via medical tube. Other detainees “were threatened” with the procedure.

Federal law defines rape as including penetration by any object with an intent to “abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse” either through the use of force or by threatening the person with grievous bodily harm. Under the official definition, the threat of rape is a form of sexual assault.

The CIA claims to have used rectal feeding rehydration in response to detainees’ refusal to eat, but the Senate report is clear that the procedure was performed “without evidence of medical necessity.” Even if it were lawful to force-feed detainees who voluntarily refuse food, the Senate report rejects this claim, citing the case of Majid Khan — the source of the most recent sexual assault revelations — a detainee who had cooperated with gastric feeding but was nonetheless later rectally rehydrated.

As a medical procedure, rectal rehydration or feeding is outdated and unnecessary. Medical experts make clear that there is “no clinical indication to use rectal rehydration and feeding over oral or intravenous administration of fluids and nutrients.”

A footnote in the report gives a better sense of the CIA’s intent: “CIA medical officers discussed rectal rehydration as a means of behavior control.” And someone from the CIA’s Office of Medical Services described the rectal rehydration of the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as helping to “clear a person’s head” and effective in getting him to talk.