US diplomats, private citizens put on high alert

Warning issued by American missions in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Thailand

WASHINGTON: US embassies in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Thailand are warning of the potential for anti-American protests and violence after Tuesday’s release of an American Senate report outlining harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA on terror suspects.

In identical notices to American citizens in the three countries, the embassies said, “The release of declassified versions of the executive summary, findings, and conclusions of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s study on the CIA’s rendition, detention and interrogation program could prompt anti-US protests and violence against US interests, including private US citizens.”

Afghanistan and Thailand were host to two of the secret CIA facilities where prisoners were interrogated. The notices urged Americans to be alert to their surrounding and take appropriate safety precautions, including avoiding demonstrations or confrontational situations.

The CIA’s interrogation of al Qaeda suspects was far more brutal than acknowledged and did not produce useful intelligence, a damning and long-delayed US Senate report said.

Debatable decision

A group of former top-ranking CIA officials disputed the Senate committee’s finding that the agency’s interrogation techniques produced no valuable intelligence, saying such work had saved thousands of lives.

Former CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden, along with three ex-deputy directors, wrote in an op-ed article published on Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal that the Senate Intelligence Committee report also was wrong in saying the agency had been deceptive about its work following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

“The committee has given us ... a one-sided study marred by errors of fact and interpretation – essentially a poorly done and partisan attack on the agency that has done the most to protect America after the 9/11 attacks,” they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2014.