Government must investigate Ireland’s role in CIA torture

The US Senate report on CIA torture provides shocking confirmation of the extent to which torture was part and parcel of how the CIA operated for many years.

It reveals that use of torture in secret prisons run by the CIA was even more extreme than previously known, and that it included appalling practices like rectal feeding, sleep deprivation and threats to the families of detainees.

The CIA director John Brennan admitted in a statement last Tuesday (Dec 9) that the CIA programme “had shortcomings and that the agency made mistakes”.