The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture: Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program (97 page)

1441.
██████ 1142 (301101Z NOV 03). This cable appears to have been retransmitted the following day as ██████████ 1144 (010823Z DEC 03).

1442.
The CIA detention site wrote, “[Hambali]’s admission came after three weeks of daily debriefing sessions with [the case officer] carried out almost entirely in Bahasa Indonesia. [Hambali] has consistently warmed to [the case officer’s] discussions with him, and has provided to [the case officer] additional information that he had avoided in the past . . . More tellingly, [Hambali] has opened up considerably to [the case officer] about his fears and motivations, and has taken to trusting [the case officer] at his word. [Hambali] looks to [the case officer] as his sole confidant and the one person who has [Hambali]’s interest in mind . . .. Given this, Base notes [Hambali]’s account of how, through statements read to him and constant repetition of questions, he was made aware of what type of answers his questioners wanted. [Hambali] said he merely gave answers that were similar to what was being asked and what he inferred the interrogator or debriefer wanted, and when the pressure subsided or he was told that the information he gave was okay, [Hambali] knew that he had provided the answer that was being sought.” (See intelligence chronology in Volume II, including ███████ 1142 (November 30, 2003).) The CIA’s June 2013 Response states that “[w]e continue to assess [Hambali’s] original revelation was correct, however, based on KSM’s claim that he tasked Hambali to identify and train pilots, Hambali’s verification of this claim in multiple instances, and the students’ interest in aircraft and aviation.” The CIA’s June 2013 Response is incongruent with the assessment of CIA interrogators at the time—that the claim of fabrication was “credible”—as well as with a wide body of subsequent reporting. CIA records indicate that CIA officers confused intelligence reporting on the Malaysians involved in the “Second Wave” plotting—an apparent reference to Masran bin Arshad, Zaini Zakaria, and three other Malaysians—with the al-Ghuraba Malaysian student group.

1443.
Hambali elaborated that the al-Ghuraba group was similar to the Pan Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS)’s Masapakindo, aka Pakindo, organization. Masran bin Arshad was connected to Pakindo, and, while in foreign government custody, explained that “in 1991, PAS [Pan Islamic Party of Malaysia] established a secret Malaysian Student Association known as ‘Masapakindo’ to help facilitate a steady pipeline of PAS religious and military trainees traveling from Malaysia to Pakistan, sometimes continuing on to Afghanistan, but ultimately returning to Malaysia. This student association for children of PAS members also was intended to serve as a general support structure for PAS students who were undergoing Islamic religious training in Pakistan and India. Masapakindo’s headquarters was based in Karachi, Pakistan.” See intelligence chronology in Volume II for additional information, including [REDACTED] 45915 (141431Z SEP 03) and CIA ████████ (160621Z DEC 02). See
also
February 27, 2004, Memorandum for CIA Inspector General from James L. Pavitt, CIA Deputy Director for Operations, entitled “Comments to Draft IG Special Review,” “Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Program,” which contains a February 24, 2004, attachment entitled, “Successes of CIA’s Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities.” See
also
CIA Intelligence Product entitled, “Jemaah Islamiya: Counterterrorism Scrutiny Limiting Extremist Agenda in Pakistan,” dated April 18, 2008. See
also
KSM and Hambali reporting from October 2003.

1444.
See intelligence chronology in Volume II. Although NSA signals intelligence was not provided for this Study, an April 2008 CIA intelligence report on the Jemaah Islamiya noted that the al-Ghuraba group “consisted of the sons of JI leaders, many of whom completed basic militant training in Afghanistan and Pakistan while enrolled at Islamic universities in Karachi,” and that this assessment was based on “signals intelligence and other reporting.” See CIA Intelligence Product entitled, “Jemaah Islamiya: Counterterrorism Scrutiny Limiting Extremist Agenda in Pakistan,” dated April 18, 2008.

1445.
WASHINGTON DC ██████ (272113Z OCT 06).

1446.
CIA Intelligence Product entitled, “Jemaah Islamiya: Counterterrorism Scrutiny Limiting Extremist Agenda in Pakistan,” dated April 18, 2008.

1447.
Dhiren Barot was referred to as “Issa,” “Abu Issa,” “Abu Issa al-Pakistani,” and “Issa al-Britani.” CIA records indicate that Dhiren Barot’s most common alias, “Issa al-Hindi” (variant “Esa al-Hindi”) – the name used to author the book, “The Army of Madinah in Kashmir” – was uncovered in May 2003 from FBI interviews of an individual in FBI custody, James Ujaama, aka Bilal Ahmed. Intelligence reporting indicated that Dhiren Barot’s, aka Esa al-Hindi’s, “The Army of Madinah in Kashmir” was a well-known book among the U.K. extremist community. Information on the book was prominently available online in 2002, on, among other internet sites, the website of the book store associated with Moazzem Begg, a U.K. extremist who was arrested and transferred to U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002. The cover of the book lists “Esa Al-Hindi” as the author (█████████████████████████280438Z (280746Z MAY 03)).

1448.
Note on CIA records related to U.K.-based “Issas”: Two United Kingdom-based al-Qa’ida associates, Dhiren Barot and Sajid Badat, were known by the same common aliases, Issa, Abu Issa, Abu Issa al-Britani (“[of] Britain”) and/or Issa al-Pakistani. Both individuals were British Indians who had been independently in contact with senior al-Qa’ida leaders in Pakistan. Reporting indicated that the Issa(s) were located in the U.K. and engaged in terrorist targeting of the U.K. The investigation into their true identities was a U.K.-led operation. As a result, the CIA sometimes had limited insight into U.K.-based activities to identify and locate the Issas. Senior CIA personnel expressed frustration that the U.K. was not sharing all known information on its investigations, writing in August 2003 that “[the FBI is] clearly working closely with the [U.K. service] on these matters and [the CIA is] at the mercy” of what it is told. Until the arrest of one of the Issas, Sajid Badat, on November 27, 2003, the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.K. authorities often confused the two al-Qa’ida associates. As a result, the quality and clarity of detainee reporting on the Issas (including reporting from detainees in the custody of the CIA, U.S. military, Department of Justice, and foreign services) varied. CIA personnel ████████████████████ reported in September 2003 that there were “two (or three) Abu Issas” in intelligence reporting and that, because of their similarities, it was often “unclear which Issa the detainees [were] referring to at different stages.” Once detained in the United Kingdom in November 2003, Sajid Badat (one of the Issas) cooperated with U.K. authorities and provided information about the other “Issa.” Badat stated that “people often asked [Badat] about [the other] Issa, as they were both British Indians.” According to Sajid Badat, “anyone who had been involved with jihad in Britain since the mid-90s” would know Issa al-Hindi (aka Dhiren Barot), to include Babar Ahmed, Moazzem Begg, Richard Reid, Zacarias Moussaoui, and KSM. Dhiren Barot (the other Issa), arrested on August 3, 2004, was found to have been especially well-known among the U.K. extremist community, having written a popular book in 1999 expounding the virtues of jihad in Kashmir under the alias, “Esa al-Hindi.” CIA records include a reference to the book and a description of its author (“a brother from England who was a Hindu and became a Muslim . . . [who] got training in Afghanistan…”) as early as December 1999. (See information disseminated by the CIA on 12/31/99 in ████████████████████ .) █████████ [A foreign partner] would later report that Dhiren Barot “frequently” appeared “in reporting of terrorist training” and “involvement in Jihad in occupied Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Malaysia, throughout the 1990s.” As described, the Committee Study is based on more than six million pages of material related to the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program provided by the CIA. Access was not provided to intelligence databases of the CIA, or any other U.S. or foreign intelligence or law enforcement agency. Insomuch as intelligence from these sources is included, it was, unless noted otherwise, found within the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program material produced for this Study. It is likely that significant intelligence unrelated to the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program on Sajid Badat and Dhiren Barot exists in U.S. intelligence and law enforcement records and databases. (See intelligence chronology in Volume II, including: ALEC ██████ (112157Z JUN 03); ██████████ 19907 (231744Z APR 04); ██████████ 99093 (020931Z SEP 03); ALEC ██████ (212117Z AUG 03); CIA WASHINGTON DC ██████ (162127Z JUN 03); and a series of emails between ████████████████ and ████████████████ (with multiple ccs) on August 22, 2003, at 9:24:43 AM.) In the context of the Capture/Identification of Sajid Badat, the CIA’s June 2013 Response states that “KSM’s reporting also clearly distinguished between, and thereby focused investigations of, two al-Qa’ida operatives known as Issa al-Britani.” As detailed in the KSM detainee review in Volume III, KSM did discuss the two operatives, but he did not identify either by name (or, in the case of Dhiren Barot, by his more common
kunya
, Issa al-Hindi) and provided no actionable intelligence that contributed to the eventual identification and location of either “Issa.”

1449.
See email from: [REDACTED]; to: [REDACTED] at the Office of Director of National Intelligence; subject: “URGENT: Unclassified Fact Sheet for [REDACTED]”; date: October 6, 2005, at 2:39 PM.

1450.
██████████ 3924 ██████████████ CIA WASHINGTON DC ██████ ██████████████. The CIA has represented that the use of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques resulted in the identification and arrest of “Abu Talha al-Pakistani.” The CIA’s June 2013 Response states that Abu Talha’s arrest and debriefing was “invaluable to our overall understanding of Issa’s activities and the threat he posed,” and claims that Abu Talha’s arrest “would not have happened if not for reporting from CIA-held detainees.” CIA records do not support this statement. CIA records indicate that Abu Talha was identified and located independent of information from CIA detainees. Abu Talha al-Pakistani, a Pakistani with links to U.K. extremists, was identified through information derived from British ████████ [intelligence collection] and the U.K. investigation of U.K.-based extremist Baber Ahmed and his associates. These individuals were already under investigation by the ██████ [foreign partner]. Further, Baber Ahmed was known to the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement authorities prior to any CIA detainee reporting. Foreign government authorities, relying on information provided by the United Kingdom and, to an extent, U.S. signals intelligence, ultimately located and arrested Abu Talha al-Pakistani. Because of the central role of U.K. authorities, CIA records do not include a comprehensive accounting of the investigation and operations that led to Abu Talha al-Pakistani’s detention. CIA records indicate, however, that Abu Talha al-Pakistani was identified by two detainees in foreign government custody, shortly after their capture. (Both detainees would later be transferred to CIA custody and subjected to the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques.) The first of these two detainees was Majid Khan, who on March 6, 2003, discussed Ammar al-Baluchi’s Karachi-based assistant, “Talha.” Majid Khan provided a phone number for Talha, and used that number at the request of his captors in an effort to locate and capture Ammar al-Baluchi through Talha. This reporting, which Majid Khan provided while he was in foreign government custody, preceded any reporting from CIA detainees. The other detainee who reported on Abu Talha was Ammar al-Baluchi, who described him as “Suliman” and stated that he had been dispatched to the United Kingdom to recruit operatives suitable for hijacking and suicide operations. Ammar al-Baluchi was also in foreign government custody at the time of this disclosure. KSM’s failure to mention Abu Talha/“Suliman,” more than a month after the CIA had ceased using its enhanced interrogation techniques against him, prompted one of KSM’s debriefers to state that “KSM could be in trouble very soon.” KSM also fabricated that he had shown a sketch related to the Heathrow Airport plot to Ammar al-Baluchi, rather than to Abu Talha, until confronted with Ammar al-Baluchi’s denials, more than three months after the use of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques against KSM had ceased. See Volume II and the KSM detainee review in Volume III for additional information.

1451.
Email from: ██████████████; to: James Pavitt and others; subject: “Laptop docex from recent raid may yield pre-election threat information”; date: July ██, 2004, at 7:35 AM.

1452.
████████████ 3924 ██████████████, disseminated as ████████████; ███████████.

1453.
See DIRECTOR ████████ (032140Z AUG 04). See
also
intelligence chronology in Volume II, as well as email from: [REDACTED]; to: [REDACTED], at the Office of Director of National Intelligence; subject: “URGENT: Unclassified Fact Sheet for [REDACTED]”; date: October 6, 2005, at 02:39 PM. The email includes a CIA-coordinated fact sheet and states the following regarding Dhiren Barot and his U.K. attack planning: “Issa al-Hindi—who previously traveled to and cased a number of financial targets in the US—met with al-Qa’ida leaders in Pakistan in early 2004 to discuss attack planning against targets in the UK. Issa spent February and March 2004 in Shkai, Pakistan, with senior al-Qa’ida explosives expert ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Muhajir, probably refining plans to use vehicle bombs against UK targets. Issa’s reports, which were recovered in a raid in mid-2004, discussed ramming a fuel tanker into a target and parking explosives-laden courier vans or limousines in underground garages. Disruption: Issa and members of his cell were detained in the UK in early August 2004—soon after the arrest of key Hamza Rabi’a subordinate Abu Talha al-Pakistani in ███████ Pakistan.”