's interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse ... to low-ranking soldiers , '' Sen. Carl Levin , D-Michigan , chairman of the Senate committee , said Tuesday . `` Claims , such as that made by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a ` few bad apples , ' were simply false . '' The Senate report said that in December 2001 the Defense Department 's General Counsel 's Office solicited information on the `` exploitation '' of detainees from the federal agency charged with training U.S. troops on how to withstand enemy interrogation techniques considered illegal by the Geneva Conventions . The inquiry to that agency , the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency , was submitted more than a month before then-President George Bush signed a memo stating that U.S. military personnel `` shall continue to treat detainees humanely and , to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity , in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions . '' The Senate committee 's investigation was largely focused on the influence of a Joint
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Senior Bush administration officials authorized aggressive interrogation techniques -- including forced nudity and waterboarding -- on suspected terrorists , despite concerns from military psychologists and attorneys , according to a Senate report released Tuesday . The Senate report focuses on the authorization to use aggressive techniques to interrogate detainees . `` The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques , redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality , and authorized their use against detainees , '' said the report , which reveals new details about prisoner treatment at U.S. military prisons in Cuba , Afghanistan and Iraq . `` Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives , strengthened the hand of our enemies and compromised our moral authority , '' the report said . The full report on the Senate Armed Services Committee investigation was declassified Tuesday by the Defense Department , less than a week after the Obama administration released several Bush-era memos detailing the use of such techniques . `` In my judgment , the report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration