France 5 aired an original documentary series titled "CIA, the secret wars of the post-September 11" on Sunday, September 6, at 9:05 PM. Produced by Antoine Mariotti and Manuel Guillon, the three-part series examines the activities of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over the past 25 years, focusing on major events such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the infamous Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, and the capture of Osama bin Laden. The series features interviews with key figures and delves into both well-known and lesser-known aspects of the CIA's role in the global fight against terrorism. The documentary begins with the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, when U.S. President George W. Bush declared a "war on terror." The U.S. launched military operations in Afghanistan in October 2001 to dismantle the terrorist group Al-Qaida and capture its leader, Osama bin Laden. Later, in March 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq based on the belief that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, a claim that was later found to be false. The series highlights the subsequent scandal involving photos of abused Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, which shocked the world. It also reveals the existence of secret detention facilities known as "black sites," located in the U.S. and Europe, where individuals not classified as prisoners of war were subjected to mistreatment without legal oversight. John Kiriakou, a former CIA analyst, appears in the documentary and discusses the agency's use of torture. He recalls discovering that CIA agents were using harsh interrogation methods, including reports from detainees who wrote, "I have never committed to this, it is torture, I resign." One secretary who witnessed a session reportedly fainted from the shock. The Washington Post later published a detailed investigation into these abuses. Dana Priest, a journalist with the Washington Post from 1984 to 2023, notes that the head of the CIA’s clandestine operations, José Rodriguez, unilaterally destroyed video recordings of interrogations. Tim Weiner, a former New York Times journalist, points out that this act of erasing evidence suggests the severity of the actions taken, as the videos "would make Abu Ghraib look like a picnic." Kiriakou, angered by President George W. Bush’s claim that "the government does not torture anyone," left his position in the CIA and publicly exposed the use of torture in secret prisons. He claimed that the practice was approved by the president himself. After his revelations, the CIA and FBI launched an investigation against him. For a year, he was under surveillance before being arrested in January 2012. Kiriakou was charged with five counts, including three of espionage, and agreed to a plea deal that resulted in a 30-month prison sentence. He served 23 months before the case was closed. The American Senate conducted a multi-year investigation into these issues, with Daniel J. Jones, a key investigator from 2007 to 2016, noting that obtaining documents took three years. One major finding was that the CIA held at least 119 detainees, with 39 subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques," including methods such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and forced feeding through a rectal tube—methods recognized as equivalent to torture. In 2014, former President Barack Obama publicly acknowledged that the U.S., under the presidency of George W. Bush, had indeed engaged in the torture of prisoners.