Over several years, the CIA wrongfully asserted that eight separate terror plots had been foiled because of the interrogation programme and countless lives had been saved.

The Senate Intelligence Committee report released on Tuesday counters that in all those cases there was never any basis for such claims. The CIA's justification for the use of these torture methods in fact "rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness,” it said.

Three of these cases emanated from Britain.

Dhiren Barot

The arrest of Dhiren Barot and his subsequent conviction at Woolwich Crown Court in 2006 and sentencing to life imprisonment for plotting to plant radioactive, chemical or toxic gas bombs and cram limousines with nails and explosives in the UK and the US was one of those cases most frequently cited by the CIA.

But the Senate report begs to differ saying that arrest of Barot, a North London schoolboy, had nothing to do with the interrogations but instead was “attributable to the efforts of UK law enforcement”.

Heathrow and Canary Wharf

The report concludes that interrogators were fed false information on an already abandoned plan by al-Qaeda to take control of planes leaving Heathrow Airport and then turn back and crash them into the airport and also Canary Wharf. The information was given to them by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the US.

The detainee, who was subjected to protracted periods of waterboarding later retracted the information but the CIA for years continued to cite what he had told them as evidence that the interrogation techniques were working even when they knew that his tip had been erroneous.

“The CIA provided similar inaccurate representations regarding the Heathrow and Canary Wharf Plotting in 20 of the 20 documents provided to policymakers and the Department of Justice between July 2003 and March 2009,” the report concludes.

After the Twin Towers atrocity, Mohammed was said to have "sought to target the United Kingdom using hijacked aircraft and surmised that Heathrow Airport and a building in Canary Wharf, a major business district in London, were powerful economic symbols".

It went on: "The initial plan was for al-Qaeda operatives to hijack multiple airplanes departing Heathrow Airport, turn them around, and crash them into the airport itself.

"Security was assessed to be too tight at Heathrow Airport and the plan was altered to focus on aircrafts departing from mainly Eastern European airports to conduct attacks against Heathrow Airport. Al-Qaeda was unable to locate pilots to conduct these attacks.”

CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings Show all 12 1 /12 CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings September 2001 Following the 9/11 hijackings by Al-Qaida, US President George Bush signs a Memorandum of Notification that authorises the CIA to capture, detain, and interrogate figures associated with terrorist organisations. CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings October 2001 The Office of Legal Counsel authorises the use of military force to combat terrorist activities within the United States. CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings January 2002 Military guards take first 20 detainees to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, located in south-eastern Cuba. The prisoners are classed as “enemy combatants” and therefore not subject to the same legal rights as prisoners held under the Geneva Convention. CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings 2002 and 2003 Al-Qaida suspects Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri are all waterboarded. EPA CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings June 2004 The Supreme Court makes a ruling that reverses a decision saying that Guantanamo Bay lies outside the jurisdiction of the US courts. Detainees now have the right to legally challenge their imprisonment. CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings May 2005 Amnesty International brands Guantanamo Bay the “gulag of our times” in its international report. CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings December 2005 The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 is passed. CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings February 2006 The United Nations calls unsuccessfully for Guantanamo Bay to be closed. It claims some aspects of the detainees’ treatment amount to torture. CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings December 2007 The CIA admits that it destroyed videotapes made in 2002 that evidenced treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees. Getty Images CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings January 2009 Newly-elected US president Barack Obama pledges to close Guantanamo Bay within 12 months. He later renegades on the bid. GETTY IMAGES CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings December 2013 The Report of the Detainee Inquiry is published. Chairman Sir Peter Gibson concludes that British intelligence officers were aware of detainees’ mistreatment. CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings December 2014 The Justice Department asks the US appeals court to overturn a decision to allow the release 32 videos that depict Guantanamo guards forcibly removing a Syrian detainee from his cell and subjecting him to forced feedings. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Dianne Feinstein, releases its report.

“Over a period of years, the CIA provided the identification and thwarting of the Heathrow Airport plot as evidence for the effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques.

"These representations were inaccurate. A review of records indicates that the Heathrow Airport and Canary Wharf plotting had not progressed beyond the initial planning stages when the operation was fully disrupted."

Saajid Badat was jailed for 13 years for trying to blow up an airliner

Shoe Bomber

The report says the CIA similarly tried to hold up the arrest and conviction in Britain of shoebomber Saajid Badat as fruit of their work at the black sites.

From Barton, Gloucester, Badat was jailed in 2005 after admitting planning to explode a shoe bomb aboard a transatlantic flight from London to the US. He had been assigned to carry out the attack alongside the the shoe bomber from Britain Richard Reid. But Badat didn’t go through with it. But again the report says it was British footwork that snared him.

Sadat had been assigned to carry out the attack alongside the the shoe bomber from Britain Richard Reid (Getty)