The CIA Office of Inspector General tells us that CIA personnel carried out mock executions and threatened detainees that their children would be killed and mothers sexually assaulted. It also describes unauthorized application of "Pressure Points", a pretty name for choking someone unconscious that was used on a detainee in Afghanistan. What it does not describe are the CIAs findings on the already publicized death of a detainee undergoing CIA-led interrogation at Bagram Collection Point who was beaten and left hanging shackled to the ceiling to die. This section has been redacted.
The Autopsy reports of the detainees known to have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan show 21 homicides.
One of the homicide victims, an Afghani Mullah named Habibullah, was interviewed by CIA and military interrogators at Bagram Collection point in November and December 2002 (Autopsy Link PDF). His torture and that of another detainee (Dilawar) who died a week after him, is detailed in the excellent reporting of Tim Golden. Habibullah's autopsy shows his death to be the result of beating combined with the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques". Let me refresh your memory:
The Beating
According to the autopsy report (PDF), Habibullah was not injured when he first arrived at the Bagram detention facility.
On autopsy, however, Habibullah's body bore the stigmata of torture (Graphic content warning):
Head and Neck: Multiple abrasions and contusions and evidence of ligature or other instrument applied to the neck:
On the right side of the neck there are two parallel, faint, linear abraded contusions. each averaging 1 1/4 x 1/4 inches with 1/2 inch separation between the two. They average approximately 10 inches below the top of the head and three inches to the right of the anterior midline. Just to the left of these is a similar, fainter, patchy abraded contusion in
approximately the same dimensions.
Torso: Multiple contusions and abrasions including "brush burn" injuries consistent with being dragged on the ground.
Extremities: Multiple contusions and abrasions, including injuries around the wrists consistent with shackling. On the thighs were linear contusions likely made from being struck with blunt objects. The patterns in the skin of the left calf revealed the likely source of the injuries- combat boots:
On the back of the left knee and calf is a 11 x 7 1/2 inch red-dark purple contusion which extends upwards above the back of the knee in a linear fashion. On internal examination, confluent hemorrhage extends deep within the muscle which is focally necrotic. On the left calf, centrally located, is a patterned abrasion consisting of multiple parallel horizontal linear abrasions the largest averaging 1 1/2 x 1/4 inches, these are closely spaced.
The Killer
Despite the violence inflicted upon his extremities, what killed Habibullah was found when they cut open his chest:
Examination of the pulmonary artery in-situ reveals a large branching embolus (blood clot) extending into both the right and left pulmonary arteries. The embolus is mildly firm. focally coiled, and smaller than the circumference of the pulmonary vessels.
Habibullah died of pulmonary embolism. A pulmonary embolus is a blood clot that is passed from the veins to the heart, then pumped into the lungs. Blood clots in the pulmonary arteries block blood flow to the lungs. Because the lungs oxygenate the blood needed for life, if large enough, pulmonary emboli lead to death.
Analysis
Pulmonary embolism is most often caused by immobility, which lets blood clots form in the deep veins (usually of the legs). When trauma is a cause of pulmonary embolism, it is almost always associated with immobility. For example, head injuries leading to coma and leg fractures both result in immobility and high risk of pulmonary embolism. In the hospital, such patients would get preventative treatment, such as with a blood thinner to prevent blood clots from forming in the veins of the immobile extremities. But in Afghanistan in December 2002, immobility was exactly what was in store for a detainee.
Habibullah was being interrogated by CIA and military interrogators. Upon autopsy he was clothed only in an adult diaper. This is consistent with the nudity and use of diapering used by CIA interrogaters during one technique: "sleep deprivation"- in which the detainee is shackled standing or sitting for up to 7 1/2 days straight. We have learned from the 2005 Bradbury memos that sleep deprivation causes venous stasis in the legs and has led to severe leg edema. We know that Habibullah was shackled to the ceiling of his cell for sleep deprivation, where he was ultimately found dead. This scenario is reinforced by a citation of a DOD criminal investigation report in the recently released Senate Armed Services Committee Report on Detainee Treatment (PDF). This citation noted that "the use of stress positions and sleep deprivation combined with other mistreatment at the hands of Bagram personnel, caused or were direct contributing factors in the two homicides [Habibullah and Dilawar]."
Where is Habibullah in the CIA IG Report?
Try pages 46-67, which have been completely redacted including from the index. The index on pages i-iii of the report segregate the CIA interrogation by facility. According to the index, pages 33-46 of the report are under the subheading "DETENTION AND INTERROGATION OPERATIONS AT [Redacted]. By the identified detainees (Abu Zubaydah, al-Nashiri and KSM), we can surmise that this location is a CIA facility in Thailand, where we know Zubaydah was held (it could also reflect a combined name for other CIA-run facilities). But we know that there were other military-controlled facilities in which CIA agents operated in Afghanistan.
The subheading for pages 46-82 is redacted, but obviously denotes detention facilities in Afghanistan. The revealed "Specific Unauthorized or Undocumented Techniques" beginning on page 69 under this redacted subheading, clearly describe events in Afganistan, including the only prosecuted beating death of a prisoner by CIA contractor David Passaro. These other techniques were also noted to be employed on another redacted, named detainee, almost certainly Habibullah:
[Redacted] opened separate investigations into two incidents: [redacted, presumably the Habibullah death] and the death of a detainee at a military base in Northeast Afghanistan (discussed further in paragraph 192). These two cases presented facts that warranted criminal investigations. Some of the techniques discussed below were used with [redacted, presumably Habibullah] and will be further addressed in connection with a Report [redacted].
Why is the Habibullah death redacted?
Let me give you the obvious answer. Because it shows that the OLC-approved EITs (hanging from a ceiling to effect "standing sleep deprivation") were directly responsible for contributing to a detainee death. Eric Holder cannot have his "narrow" investigation of the "Lyndie Englands" of the CIA interrogation program if the program as authored and approved by the highest levels of the Bush Administration is responsible for torture. Make no mistake, the redactions of the newly-released CIA IG report were designed for politically expedient whitewash.