Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Sep 29, 2025

The Spy Museum Is Now Planning To Overhaul Its Controversial Torture Exhibit

The Spy Museum Is Now Planning To Overhaul Its Controversial Torture Exhibit

The museum intends to implement changes to the exhibit by March after it faced widespread criticism for playing down the brutality of the CIA’s torture program.
The International Spy Museum is working on sweeping changes to its controversial torture exhibit following backlash from lawmakers, national security and human rights experts, and former intelligence officials.

Last month, three Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee wrote to the museum, accusing it of “sanitizing” the CIA’s torture program and requesting information about proposed changes to the exhibit, BuzzFeed News first reported. In 2014, the committee released an executive summary of a classified report concluding that the Bush-era program failed to produce "unique" or "valuable" intelligence and that the CIA misled lawmakers about the program’s effectiveness.

In a newly obtained letter sent to lawmakers a day after BuzzFeed News’ report, the museum’s president described the planned changes to the exhibit, which include adding the executive summary of the committee’s torture report to the display. “The new exhibit will focus more broadly on the history of interrogation, to include both coercive methods (physical and psychological) and non-coercive methods (such as rapport building),” reads the Dec. 20 letter to Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Martin Heinrich, and Ron Wyden. “We also intend to add content on scientific and technical innovations to detect deceit (to include a polygraph artifact), as well as legal definitions of torture.”

As it stands, the museum’s so-called interrogation exhibit focuses on physical torture methods used in centuries past, as well as the techniques -such as waterboarding -used by the CIA after the 9/11 attacks. It also leaves open the question of whether torture works, despite the committee’s findings.

The museum, which counts a handful of former CIA officials who were staunch defenders of the torture program as advisers, has been harshly criticized since it reopened last spring and unveiled the new exhibit.

Experts railed against the museum for the exhibit’s both-sides approach, depictions of the agency’s brutal torture techniques, and inclusion of a poll asking visitors if they would support torturing suspected terrorists. Torture is banned under the Geneva Conventions, and President Barack Obama signed legislation authored by Feinstein and Sen. John McCain into law that specifically prohibited the techniques used by the CIA after the 9/11 attacks.

Feinstein and Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, wrote to the museum in May asking that it include the committee’s study in the exhibit and the prohibitions against the use of torture in interrogations.

After that, committee staff toured the museum and addressed “mischaracterizations and inaccuracies that were present in the exhibit,” a committee spokesperson previously said. At the time, the museum said it was revising the exhibit, but did not provide details on the planned changes.

The new exhibit will feature “an expanded timeline of the history of the [CIA] program,” according to the Dec. 20 letter from museum president Tamara Christian, in addition to the inclusion of the committee’s report.

“As you know, the Museum is an independent, educational organization, and as such is ultimately responsible for the integrity, accuracy and balance of its own exhibits,” Christian wrote. “We welcome input from all quarters. Input from those responsible for the Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program has been of particular value.”

Christian said the museum’s board has been updated on the planned changes and that the goal is to implement them by March. Christian also offered to provide the senators with further updates about the progress. A spokesperson for the museum declined to comment.

In a statement, Heinrich, Feinstein, and Wyden said they were “pleased that the museum has confirmed it is moving forward with changes to its interrogation exhibit.” They also said they welcomed an invitation from the museum to meet its “leadership, historians, and curators to ensure that the changes being implemented reflect the truth about the brutality and ineffectiveness of torture.”

One of the Intelligence Committee staffers who has been involved in the effort to change the exhibit is Evan Gottesman, who served on the committee during the torture program study and worked on the 6,700-page classified report. The museum provided Gottesman an update on the proposed changes in the fall, according to the Dec. 20 letter.

But Daniel J. Jones, the chief investigator on the committee’s study, said he remains doubtful of the museum. “The museum’s promotion of the CIA’s torture program, blind allegiance to the CIA’s talking points, and willful avoidance of the documented facts is appalling,” Jones, who has not visited the museum but has seen videos of photos of the exhibit, told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday. “Even more so when you consider the museum’s main audience -our nation’s schoolchildren.”

“Based on what I’ve seen so far -how far they’re off the mark -I’m more than a little skeptical that they can make the necessary corrections to this exhibit. But we will see in March if they’re serious,” he said.

Jones, who is portrayed by Adam Driver in The Report -the critically acclaimed movie about his work -noted that the “CIA’s own secret internal review echoed the Senate’s findings.” The CIA has blocked attempts to release the top-secret document, known as the Panetta Review and named after then–CIA director Leon Panetta, saying it was incomplete and never meant to be seen by the Senate.

“The same individuals that should have faced legal and professional accountability continue to spread the same misinformation and defend the use of torture,” Jones said. “The Spy Museum has been so careless with the facts here that it should cast doubt on the integrity of their entire enterprise. Absent a major reversal, our nation’s school leaders should think twice before adding the Spy Museum to their students’ class trip agendas.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
×