USA Counterterrorism and the CIA Detention and Interrogation Program – between Legislative Constraint and Exceptional Permissiveness

In the war launched against terrorism of Islamic fundamentalist origin in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), the US was under pressure of time to implement a series of exceptional measures to combat terrorists and protect the security of the American state. To that end, US counterterrorism, in a time race against terrorists, was coordinated by the CIA through the operationalization of a series of enhanced interrogation techniques, an integral part of the Detention and Interrogation Program developed by the Agency. Through the qualitative method of document analysis, this research aims to assess the effectiveness of the enhanced interrogation techniques developed by the CIA, simultaneously relying on a dual content analysis: on the one hand, an analysis of the first 10 findings of the Report of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program and, on the other hand, an analysis of the evidence provided by top policy makers and former US intelligence operatives. The novelty of the subject of this scientific contribution for the Romanian literature on American counterterrorism resides in the fact that, in order to maximize the degree of objectivity in assessing the effectiveness of the Agency’s enhanced interrogation techniques, it confronts the legislative dimension highlighted by the Commission Report and the information-operational dimension supported by factual elements selected from key actors within the American intelligence.