How America's global system of torture dungeons came to be

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the C.I.A. considered operating overseas prisons similar to American penitentiaries, like the one in Florence, Colorado. [Photo: Bureau of Prisons via NYT]


After the Sept. 11 attacks, the C.I.A. considered operating overseas prisons similar to American penitentiaries, like the one in Florence, Colorado. [Photo: Bureau of Prisons via NYT]

In the New York Times today, essential reading on how the CIA's network of black sites and torture dungeons around the globe evolved into being.

Originally, the sites where war-on-terror detainees were to be held and interrogated were to have abided by the same fabulous standards as American prisons, which we all know are happy-fun places where human rights are always respected, where innocent people never end up by mistake, and where those in power never do anything wrong.

But then things got a whole lot worse.

The C.I.A.'s early framework for its detention program offers a glimpse of a possible alternative history. As the country grapples with new disclosures about the program, the Senate report tells a story of how plans for American-style jails were replaced with so-called "black sites," where some prisoners were chained to walls and forgotten, froze to death on concrete floors and were waterboarded until they lost consciousness.

"Imagine if we didn't go down that road. Imagine. We played into the enemy's hand," said Ali H. Soufan, a former F.B.I. agent who clashed with the C.I.A. over its interrogation tactics. "Now we have American hostages in orange jumpsuits because we put people in orange jumpsuits."

By Matt Apuzzo and James Risen.