CAT/C/USA/CO/3-5 The State party should amend the relevant laws and regulations accordingly, and withdraw its reservation to article 16, as a means of avoiding wrongful interpretations. Counter-terrorism measures 11. The Committee expresses grave concern over the extraordinary rendition, secret detention and interrogation programme operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) between 2001 and 2008, which comprised numerous human rights violations, including torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of persons suspected of involvement in terrorism-related crimes. While noting the content and scope of Presidential Executive Order 13491, the Committee regrets that the State party only provided scant information about the now shuttered network of secret detention facilities, which formed part of the high-value detainee programme publicly referred to by President Bush on 6 September 2006. It also regrets that the State party did not provide information on the practices of extraordinary rendition and enforced disappearance, nor on the extent of the abusive interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, used by the CIA on suspected terrorists. In that regard, the Committee is closely following the declassification process of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the CIA Detention and Interrogation Programme (arts. 2, 11 and 16). The Committee recalls the absolute prohibition of torture contained in article 2, paragraph 2, of the Convention: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” In that regard, the Committee draws the State party’s attention to its general comment No. 2 (2007), in which it states that exceptional circumstances include “any threat of terrorist acts or violent crime as well as armed conflict, international or non-international.” The Committee urges the State party to: (a) Ensure that no one is held in secret detention anywhere under its de facto effective control. The Committee reiterates that detaining individuals in such conditions constitutes, per se, a violation of the Convention (CAT/C/USA/CO/2, para. 17); (b) Take all necessary measures to ensure that its legislative, administrative and other anti-terrorism measures are compatible with the provisions of the Convention, in particular the provisions of article 2; (c) Adopt effective measures to ensure, in law and in practice, that all detainees are afforded all legal safeguards from the very outset of the deprivation of their liberty, including the safeguards mentioned in paragraphs 13 and 14 of the Committee’s general comment No. 2 (2007). The Committee calls for the declassification and prompt public release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the CIA secret detention and interrogation programme, with minimal redaction. The Committee also encourages the State party to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Inquiries into allegations of torture overseas 12. The Committee expresses concern over the ongoing failure on the part of the State party to fully investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment of suspects held in United States custody abroad, evidenced by the limited number of criminal prosecutions and convictions. In that respect, the Committee notes that during the period under review, the 4