The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has forced the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to release post-9/11 torture documents detailing brutal torture techniques used by the George W. Bush administration in an attempt to get information from so-called suspected terrorists.

RT English News reports that the ACLU was able to obtain the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request it made to the CIA. The ACLU is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization with a mission to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person.

On June 14 2016, the CIA released more than 800 pages of the torture documents to the ACLU. After going through some of the documents, the ACLU said it is appalled by the inhumanity of the torture conceived and carried out by the CIA under the Bush administration.

Although some details of the documents have been reported in the media during the Senate Intelligence Committee probe into the enhanced interrogation program, this is the first time the documents on the program is being made available to the public.

ACLU said the documents revealed that two psychologists were contracted by the CIA to design and implement the torture program, and that all those involved in the brutal act knew what they were doing was wrong.

New CIA docs (in @ACLU #FOIA case), document torture, crimes for which no senior official has been held accountable https://t.co/2yxkZW2pjN — Hina Shamsi (@HinaShamsi) June 15, 2016

“We’re seeing just how much (James) Mitchell, (John ‘Bruce’) Jessen, and their CIA co-conspirators knew that what they were doing was wrong and illegal. They talked about seeking a get-out-of-jail-free card for torturing people, and then discussed how to make sure their victims were silenced forever, even if they survived their torture,” ACLU staff attorney, Dror Ladin said.

ACLU also stated that it is shocked about the level of brutalities the documents have detailed concerning the CIA’s covert operations overseas.

Among the brutal details found in the documents, is a 35-page internal investigation into the interrogation and the death of one Gul Rahman known as the “Death Report.” It is said Rahman froze to death in a CIA secret prison in Afghanistan in 2002. He was doused in cold water and left in a cage semi-naked with no blankets, or any form of heat, as temperatures dropped below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius).

John Yoo who wrote Bush admin’s waterboarding justification rushes to service Trump https://t.co/8qTzn2yKoa + — Dr.Fatma Ülgen (@fatmaulgen) June 15, 2016

The same investigation again revealed that “suspects who possess significant or imminent threat information were often stripped to their diapers during interrogation and placed back into their cells wearing only diapers or sometimes even completely naked.”

The documents also revealed how an Al-Qaeda suspect, Abu Zubaydah was subjected to 83 waterboarding sessions, and placed in a coffin-sized box for a total of 266 hours (11 days, two hours) over a 20-day period. Knowing the brutal act they were committing, the CIA operatives drafted a letter to the Justice Department, asking the attorney general to grant a formal declination of prosecution for any future measures taken by their personnel against Abu Zubaydah in an attempt to cover their heinous crimes.

It was also documented in some of the released documents that some employees of the CIA had objected to some of the techniques being used on suspects, as well as the legitimacy of their detention.

One memo revealed how an unnamed CIA field officer expressed serious reservations with the continued use of the enhanced techniques. However, senior officers of the agency found the brutal covert operation to be both effective and within legal bounds.

CIA torture memo from 2003 approving water-boarding & “use of harmless insects” ht @froomkin https://t.co/VHAryx7tzW pic.twitter.com/IbsIQ2nJfL — Peter Maass (@maassp) June 14, 2016

In a memo dated in 2004, James L. Pavitt, who was the then Deputy Director for Operations for the CIA, said he believed only an internal probe would confirm the CIA’s fundamental respect for human values.

However, during one special review of the torture program by the agency, some senior officers, including Mr Pavitt who had claimed the brutal torture program was legal, felt it would be important for the CIA to hide the extent of the torture.

These officers even recommended that some detainees should be hidden from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in order not to leak the torture to the public.

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