CIA torturers sought assurances that detainees would remain incommunicado for the rest of their lives

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The Senate Torture Report notes:

The interrogation team closed the [CIA] cable by stating:

"regardless of which [disposition] option we follow, however, and especially in light of the planned psychological pressure techniques to be implemented, we need to get reasonable assurances that [Abu Zubaydah] will remain in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life."

(The report makes clear that the cable was sent well before the torture commenced. They were seeking advanced "assurances" that the torture and "psychological pressures techniques" - more below - would never be revealed to anyone, to help shield them from prosecution.)

Another section of the Senate Torture Report notes:

One interrogator told another detainee that he would never go to court, because "we can never let the world know what I have done to you."

In other words:

• The torturers knew that what they were doing was

• They knew it was

This is particularly disturbing given that everyone knew that Abu Zubaydah (the guy mentioned in the cable) was literally crazy ... and that he had told interrogators everything he knew torture started.

And it is made more sinister by the fact that the specific torture techniques were specifically engineered for obtaining confessions.

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