A set of harsh interrogation tactics employed by the CIA to inflict pain and suffering on al-Qaida detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks in order to break their spirits and to extract intelligence about the terrorist group. The tactics included waterboarding, weeks of sleep deprivation, slapping and slamming of detainees against walls, confining them to small boxes, keeping them isolated for prolonged periods, threatening them with virtual execution and other harsh techniques.

The CIA's interrogation program stemmed from a 2002 secret order from President George W. Bush in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. It authorized the CIA to detain and interrogate terrorists. After al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, the agency received permission from the Justice Department and White House to use several coercive techniques on him, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and close confinement — a menu of tactics drawn up by two psychologists helping the CIA as contractors. The U.S. government ultimately paid their companies $80 million.

Some of the cruel practices include:

• At least five men in CIA detention received "rectal rehydration," a form of feeding through the rectum. The report found no medical necessity for the treatment.
• Three detainees faced waterboarding, the simulated drowning technique. Some were left broken by the treatment, pleading and whimpering, one described as assuming a "compliant" position on the waterboarding table at the snap of an interrogator's fingers.
• Others received "ice baths" and death threats. At least three in captivity were told their families would suffer, with CIA officers threatening to harm their children, sexually abuse the mother of one man and cut the throat of another man's mother.
• Zubaydah was held in a secret facility in Thailand, called detention Site Green in the report. FBI agents, who obtained crucial intelligence from Zubaydah through traditional interrogation, stopped participating when the CIA took over and raised the pressure.

The harsh interrogation practices were widely viewed as torture by critics and human right activists from around the world. On December 9, 2014, the U.S. Senate issued a damning indictment of CIA practices and accused the spy agency of inflicting pain and suffering on al-Qaida prisoners far beyond its legal boundaries and then deceiving the nation with narratives of useful interrogations unsubstantiated by its own records.