Review under way on foot of CIA torture report

THE US government has launched a criminal investigation into CIA interrogations as a declassified report revealed threats to kill a suspect’s children and the use of an electric drill to scare another detainee.

The document, compiled by the agency’s inspector general in 2004 but released this week, includes allegations that an agent implied that a prisoner’s mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him unless he spoke.

It could lead to criminal charges against the interrogators responsible, with the US attorney general appointing a senior prosecutor to investigate claims of mistreatment.