Central Intelligence Agency officials considered forced “rectal rehydration” as an effective method of “behavioral control” of suspected Al Qaeda terrorists being held in secret detention facilities, according to the scathing Senate Intelligence Committee report released today.

Additionally, CIA leaders were “alerted to allegations that rectal exams were conducted with ‘excessive force’ on two detainees” at an agency detention site.

In a lengthy footnote, the report notes that some detainees who were subjected to the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” were subjected to rectal rehydration “without evidence of medical necessity,” while other detainees “were threatened with it.”

In a 2004 e-mail, the report states, CIA medical officers “discussed rectal rehydration as a means of behavior control.” One CIA officer wrote that while intravenous infusion of fluids is “safe and effective, we were impressed with the ancillary effectiveness of rectal infusion on ending the water refusal in a similar case.”

Referring to the rehydration process and the use of a rectal tube, the CIA officer wrote that, “if you place it and open up the IV tubing, the flow will self regulate, sloshing up the large intestine.”

Describing the forced rehydration of Majid Khan (seen above), the report noted that the detainee’s lunch tray “consisting of hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts, and raisins” was “pureed” and then “rectally infused.”

At some point, the report says, CIA brass was “alerted to allegations that rectal exams were conducted with ‘excessing force’ on two detainees” at an agency detention site. While the source of these allegations is not detailed, one of the detainees, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, was subsequently diagnosed “with chronic hemorrhoids, an anal fissure, and symptomatic rectal prolapse.” (1 page)