On Tuesday, December 9, reports surfaced about the CIA’s interrogation and detention program. These reports are the result of a five-year investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The CIA has reportedly allowed untrained and inexperienced people into the field, letting them interrogate and inflict punishments on suspects who were believed to be involved in the devastating 9/11 attacks.

This inhumane torture has included a tactic called water boarding, in which a towel is placed over the person’s face. Water is then poured over the towel, and is a kind of suffocation technique, as it is very difficult to breathe under these conditions. In one instance, a victim’s towel was removed, and he was left completely unresponsive with foam coming out of his mouth.

One detainee by the name of Abu Zubayhdah was put in complete isolation for 47 days. He was then asked questions on a near constant 24-hour basis. He denied having any knowledge that the CIA would want or deem important, and was left pleading, whimpering and begging for the torture to end.

The most shocking report was that of a detainee dying of hypothermia. Gul Rahman, a supposed Afghan militant was arrested almost 6 weeks after the tragic 9/11 attacks. He was transported to Kabul, where a CIA-run prison is located. Not a month later, Rahman was frozen to death.

According to the Senate intelligence committee, only one CIA agent has ever been held accountable for the inhumane torture inflicted on the detainees of their facilities. This CIA employee is John Kirakau. He is currently serving prison time, as a result of going public with facts about the interrogation program in 2007.

Some of the detainees have mistaken identities. The Senate committee found that 26 of the 119 detainees, almost 22 percent, were detained in spite of the fact that they did not meet the standards of detention. The US government has not accounted for some of the detainees. In one instance, the CIA released a statement saying fewer than one hundred were being detained, when in reality, 119 were being held by the agency.