Part 7/9:
Over the years, the CIA’s secret torture program facilitated the detention of 119 individuals, with many subsequently released or sent into foreign custody. Those who were innocent—including several wrongfully accused—suffered irreparable harm. Furthermore, successful prosecutions of true terrorists were compromised because evidence gathered through torture became inadmissible in court.
This created a profound irony: the very strategies employed by the United States in retaliation to terrorist attacks turned individuals like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed into symbols of American hypocrisy in the eyes of the world. While the U.S. aimed to uphold its values of justice and human rights, it undermined those principles by resorting to torture, creating a narrative that extremists could exploit.