Majority of Americans approve torture: poll

© REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

A barbed wire fence surrounds a military area is in the forest near Stare Kiejkuty village, close to Szczytno in Northeastern Poland, in this January 24, 2014 file photo. Poland threatened to halt the transfer of al Qaeda suspects to a secret CIA jail on its soil 11 years ago, but became more "flexible" after the Central Intelligence Agency gave it a large sum of money, according to a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report released on December 9, 2014.

In the wake of last week's release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program, 69 percent of Americans consider waterboarding to be torture, but 49 percent think aggressive interrogation tactics like waterboarding are sometimes justified. 36 percent think they are not justified.

More than half (57 percent) think that such interrogation tactics provide reliable information that helps prevent terrorist attacks at least some of the time. Fifty-two percent of Americans think the release of information regarding the CIA interrogation tactics poses a threat to U.S. security; a third doesn't think it will have an impact.

Waterboarding and Aggressive Interrogation Tactics

Forty-nine percent of Americans think waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation tactics are sometimes justified to get information from suspected terrorists, but just over a third -- 36 percent -- think they are never justified. The percentage who thinks these tactics are justified has risen slightly from three years ago.

More than seven in 10 Republicans (73 percent) and half of independents (50 percent) think these tactics are sometimes justified. Most Democrats (54 percent) do not. Those who have heard or read a lot about the report are even more likely than Americans overall to say these tactics are justified.

One of the techniques highlighted in the report is the use of waterboarding, in which the sensation of drowning is created by either dunking a restrained prisoner in water or pouring water over the prisoner's face. As they did five years ago, most Americans consider this technique to be torture, including majorities of Democrats (83 percent), independents (67 percent), and half of Republicans. The percentage of Americans who do not consider waterboarding torture is unchanged, at 26 percent.

Among Americans who consider waterboarding torture, half think these practices are not justified. 87 percent of those who do not consider waterboarding torture think these tactics are justified.

The report outlined a number of other techniques used by the CIA to interrogate suspected terrorists in the years after the 9/11 attacks -- such as threatening to sexually abuse a prisoner's mother, forcing a prisoner to stay awake for up to 180 hours, and forcing them to bathe in ice water. Most Americans consider these tactics to be torture (by percentage, below):

• Threaten to sexually abuse prisoner's mother (73 percent)


• Forced to stay awake up to 180 hours (70 percent)


• Waterboarding (69 percent)


• Forced ice water bath (57 percent)

Fifty-seven percent of Americans think these tactics provide reliable information that help prevent terrorist attacks at least some of the time, including 23 percent who think this happens often. Twenty-four percent think this rarely happens, while just 8 percent think these tactics never provide reliable information.

President Obama banned the use of waterboarding and several other aggressive interrogation methods in January 2009. However, 57 percent of Americans think waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques are still being used by the CIA.

The Senate Intelligence Committee Report

Six in 10 Americans say they don't know enough about the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA interrogation program to assess its fairness, but among those with an opinion, more are inclined to say the report left important things out than say it was a fair representation. Forty-one percent of Americans who have heard or read a lot about it think the report left important things out.

Just over half of Americans (52 percent) think the release of information in the report regarding CIA interrogation tactics poses a threat to U.S. security; a third doesn't think it will have an impact. There are partisan differences: Most Republicans (64 percent) and more than half of independents (55 percent) think the release of the report does pose a threat, while Democrats are more divided.

There is some skepticism about whether the CIA told the President and Congress the truth about its treatment of prisoners. Only 18 percent think the agency was telling the truth about its interrogation program. 44 percent think the CIA was mostly truthful but hiding something, and 17 percent of Americans think the CIA was mostly lying about its treatment of prisoners.

More broadly, when asked if suspected terrorists should have the same legal rights as other criminal suspects, 56 percent don't think they should, particularly Republicans (79 percent). Forty-seven percent of Democrats say suspected terrorists should have the same legal rights, while 41 percent think they should not.

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CBS NEWS POLL

Torture and Reaction to the Senate Intelligence Report

December 11-14, 2014

Q1. How much have you heard or read about the recent report by the Senate Intelligence Committee on the detention and interrogation program used by the CIA in the years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks?

** TOTAL RESPONDENTS **

Total Rep Dem Ind

% % % %

A lot 30 33 25 32

Some 33 32 33 34

Not much 31 29 35 29

Nothing at all 5 5 6 3

Don't know/No answer 1 1 * 1

Q2. From what you have heard or read, do you think the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the detention and interrogation program used by the CIA is a fair representation of what occurred, or did it leave important things out, or don't you know enough to say?

Fair representation 12 12 13 10

Left important things out 24 30 19 26

Don't know enough to say 61 55 64 61

Don't know/No answer 3 4 4 3

Q3. When it comes to how prisoners were being treated in the CIA's detention and interrogation program, do you think the CIA was telling the truth to the President and Congress, mostly telling the truth but hiding something, or mostly lying?

Telling the truth 18 31 12 15

Mostly telling truth, hiding something 44 41 51 41

Mostly lying 17 12 20 17

Don't know/No answer 21 15 17 27

Q3a. Do you think the public release of information about the CIA detention and interrogation program poses a threat to the security of the U.S., or don't you think its release will have an impact on U.S. security?

Threat to U.S. security 52 64 40 55

No impact on U.S. security 33 24 45 28

Don't know/No answer 15 12 15 17

Q3b. Do you think it is sometimes justified to use water boarding and other aggressive interrogation tactics to get information from a suspected terrorist, or are these tactics never justified?

Nov11b

%

Justified 49 73 32 50 45

Not justified 36 19 54 32 40

Depends (vol.) 4 4 4 4 6

Don't know/No answer 10 5 10 13 9

Q3c. Do you think the use of water boarding and other aggressive interrogation tactics are still being used by the CIA to get information from suspected terrorists, or do you think these tactics are no longer being used by the CIA?

Total Rep Dem Ind

% % % %

Still being used 57 57 63 53

No longer used 20 22 19 20

Were never used (vol.) 1 1 1 1

Don't know/No answer 22 20 18 26

Q4. In a procedure known as 'waterboarding,' interrogators produce the sensation of drowning in a restrained prisoner either by dunking him in water or pouring water over his face. Do you consider this procedure a form of torture, or not?

Apr09b

%

Torture 69 51 83 67 71

Not torture 26 45 13 26 26

Don't/no answer 5 4 3 7 3

Q5. Do you consider forcing a prisoner to stay awake for up to 180 hours to be a form of torture, or not?

Torture 70 50 86 68

Not torture 27 46 12 27

Don't/no answer 4 4 2 5

Q6. Do you consider forcing a prisoner to take an ice water bath to be a form of torture, or not?

Torture 57 39 76 53

Not torture 39 57 21 42

Don't/no answer 4 3 3 5

Q7. Do you consider threatening to sexually abuse a prisoner's mother to be a form of torture, or not?

Torture 73 63 87 68

Not torture 23 33 13 24

Don't/no answer 4 4 1 7

Q9. How often do you think the use of water boarding and other aggressive interrogation tactics provide reliable information that helps prevent terrorist attacks -- often, sometimes, rarely or never?

Often 23 35 13 24

Sometimes 34 35 36 33

Rarely 24 16 30 23

Never 8 5 12 7

Don't know/No answer 11 10 9 14

Q11. Do you think suspected terrorists being detained by the U.S. should have the same legal rights as other individuals who are suspected of a crime, or should they not have the same legal rights?

Total Rep Dem Ind

% % % %

Same legal rights 34 18 47 32

Not same legal rights 56 79 41 56

Depends (vol.) 3 2 3 4

Don't know/No answer 7 2 9 8

Unweighted Weighted

Total Respondents 1,003

Total Republicans 257 224

Total Democrats 310 321

Total Independents 436 458

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