Lawmakers say CIA may have misled filmmakers
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers accused the CIA of misleading the
makers of the Osama bin Laden raid film "Zero Dark Thirty" by allegedly
telling them that harsh interrogation methods helped track down the
terrorist mastermind.
The film shows
waterboarding and similar techniques as important, if not key, to
finding bin Laden in Pakistan, where he was killed by Navy SEALs in
2011.
A Senate Intelligence Committee
investigation into the CIA's detainee program found that such methods
produced no useful intelligence.
The CIA's
acting director, Michael Morell, recently contradicted that finding. In a
statement last month to employees, he said that while the film was
wrong to depict harsh techniques as key to finding bin Laden, those
interrogations did produce some useful intelligence.
"Some came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well," Morell said.
In
a letter to the CIA this week, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., John
McCain, R-Ariz., and others asked Morell to back up his claim and to
share documents showing what the filmmakers were told.
They
asked him to provide what information was acquired from CIA detainees
and when. "Prior to, during, or after the detainee was subjected to the
CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques? If after, how long after?"
The
senators contend that that the CIA detainee who provided the most
accurate information about the courier who was tracked to bin Laden's
hiding place "provided the information prior to being subjected to
coercive interrogation techniques," according to a statement Thursday
from Feinstein. The senators sent the agency a similar letter last
month.
The CIA says it will cooperate.
"As
we've said before, we take very seriously our responsibility to keep
our oversight committees informed and value our relationship with
Congress," CIA spokesman John Tomczyk said.
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Dozier can be followed on Twitter (at)kimberlydozier.
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