This is what a CIA 'dungeon' is like

This is what a CIA 'dungeon' is like

This is what a CIA 'dungeon' is like
(Image credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

The CIA's black sites were unsurprisingly scary as hell. According to the just-released Senate report on the CIA's torture program, one detention center was basically a medieval "dungeon" — and that's in the words of the site's "chief of interrogations."

CIA detainees at the COBALT detention facility were kept in complete darkness and constantly shackled in isolated cells with loud noise or music and only a bucket to use for human waste. Lack of heat at the facility likely contributed to the death of a detainee. The chief of interrogations described COBALT as a "dungeon." Another senior CIA officer stated COBALT was itself an enhanced interrogation technique. [Senate Report]

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Nico Lauricella

Nico Lauricella was editor-in-chief at TheWeek.com. He was formerly the site's deputy editor and an editor at The Huffington Post.