Torture Report: Seized Computers, Not Waterboarding, Thwarted Would-be Bomber

A British terror plotter whom the CIA used as a poster child for the effectiveness of torture, actually was thwarted by foreign authorities and confiscated computers, according to revelations in a Senate report on so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

The report asserts the information that brought down Dhiren Barot, alias "Issa al-Hindi," was unrelated to the CIA's detention and interrogation program. The disruption of a plot to bomb U.K. targets "was attributable to the efforts of U.K. law enforcement" and technical tactics.

In July 2004, Pakistani authorities "conducted a series of raids and seized a laptop computer that was shared with the U.S. government," states a declassified 525-page summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report. The computer "contained a series of undated, English-language casing reports. In all, the computer contained over 500 photographs maps, sketches and scanned documents associated with apparent casings."

The review, released by Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., noted the capture of Barot is one of the CIA's most frequently cited examples of how interrogation tactics produced "otherwise unavailable intelligence" that helped "save lives."

However, the report concludes, contrary to the CIA's claims, the agency's "brutal" enhanced interrogation techniques were ineffective, and alleges the CIA provided inaccurate information to lawmakers and the public.

In fact, waterboarding Al Qaida leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed yielded lies, including that he sent Barot to Montana to recruit African-American Muslim converts.

Barot is now serving a 30-year sentence, after conspiring to plant radioactive bombs and fill limousines with explosives.

August 2004 internal talking points prepared by the CIA state: "Probably the most important intelligence tool we used in breaking this [Dhiren Barot] case was our cyber capability enabled by the USA Patriot Act. From beginning to end, cyber played a role, but it was not the only tool that was used. [Human and signals intelligence] threads were followed and contributed."

The internal communications continued, “Exploitation of computers” obtained during raids “also contributed significantly, as did surveillance, but “good old-fashioned hard targeting and analysis of these maddeningly vague and disparate and incomplete threads of information was the glue that put it all together."

The Senate report, which cost more than $40 million to compose, is based on about 6 million pages of materials.

Pentagon Secretary Chuck Hagel put overseas troops on "high alert" ahead of the report's Tuesday release.

President Barack Obama backed the declassification of the Senate review, emphasizing that he ended the interrogation program upon taking office.

"The report documents a troubling program involving enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects in secret facilities outside the United States," he said in a statement. "These techniques did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners."

The torture analysis does not have the support of Senate minority members.

"We are opposed to this study and believe it will present serious consequences for U.S. national security,"  Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and committee Vice Chairman Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said in a joint statement. "The study by Senate Democrats is an ideologically motivated and distorted recounting of historical events."