CIA 'torture' report: Timeline from 9/11 to Dianne Feinstein's findings

Some of the key events between September 2001 and the present day

Prisoners in a holding area at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Getty Images)

Today a long-awaited report on the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques has been released - with reverberations expected to be felt around the globe.

The report, which took years to produce, is the first independent assessment of the CIA's "Rendition, Detention and Interrogation" program, which George Bush authorised after 9/11.

Watch Senate CIA 'torture' report live

Senate Intelligence Committee staff reportedly reviewed around six million pages of information, while the report itself has over 38,000 footnotes citing CIA documents.

The lobby of the CIA Headquarters building in McLean, Virginia (Reuters)

These are some of the key events that led to today's conclusions:

September 2001
Following the 9/11 hijackings by Al-Qaida, US President George Bush signs a Memorandum of Notification that authorises the CIA to capture, detain, and interrogate figures associated with terrorist organisations.

October 2001
The Office of Legal Counsel authorises the use of military force to combat terrorist activities within the United States.

January 2002
Military guards take first 20 detainees to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, located in south-eastern Cuba. The prisoners are classed as “enemy combatants” and therefore not subject to the same legal rights as prisoners held under the Geneva Convention.

2002 and 2003
Al-Qaida suspects Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri are all waterboarded.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (EPA)

June 2004
The Supreme Court makes a ruling that reverses a decision saying that Guantanamo Bay lies outside the jurisdiction of the US courts. Detainees now have the right to legally challenge their imprisonment.

May 2005
Amnesty International brands Guantanamo Bay the “gulag of our times” in its international report.

December 2005
The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 is passed.

February 2006
The United Nations calls unsuccessfully for Guantanamo Bay to be closed. It claims some aspects of the detainees’ treatment amount to torture.

The US Vice-President Joseph Biden, left, and retired military officers watch President Barack Obama sign orders to close down the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay (GETTY IMAGES)

December 2007
The CIA admits that it destroyed videotapes made in 2002 that evidenced treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

January 2009
Newly-elected US president Barack Obama pledges to close Guantanamo Bay within 12 months. He later renegades on the bid.

December 2013
The Report of the Detainee Inquiry is published. Chairman Sir Peter Gibson concludes that British intelligence officers were aware of detainees’ mistreatment.

December 2014
The Justice Department asks the US appeals court to overturn a decision to allow the release 32 videos that depict Guantanamo guards forcibly removing a Syrian detainee from his cell and subjecting him to forced feedings.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Dianne Feinstein, releases its report.