Before August 1, 2002: CIA Office Gathers Data about Use of Enhanced Techniques

The CIA’s Office of Technical Services gathers data about the use of potential “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which the CIA wishes to use on detainees in the war on terror, and their long-term psychological effects on detainees. According to the agency’s inspector general, the information is solicited from “a number of psychologists and knowledgeable academics in the area of psychopathology.” It also comes from the Defense Department’s Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA), which provides information about Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training and its subsequent psychological effects on students. The JPRA says that no long-term psychological effects result from the use of the techniques, including waterboarding, on SERE students. The data is then provided to lawyers at the agency’s Office of General Counsel and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, who use it to draft legal opinions. [Central Intelligence Agency, 5/7/2004, pp. 14 ]