Sen. Diane Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed on Friday to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Physicians for Human Rights to debunk the claim by ex-CIA Director Michael Hayden that rectal hydration done on 9/11 suspects was a medical procedure and not a form of torture.

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The doctors said that there is "no clinical indication to use rectal rehydration and feeding" to replace feeding them nutrients through oral or intravenous methods. She also stressed that rectal hydration is not a medical procedure and was never allowed by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel "as an authorized interrogation technique," Huffington Post reports.

Hayden, who was responding to the release this week by the Senate committee of its findings on CIA torture methods, told CNN, "I'm not a doctor. What I am told is that this is one of the ways that the body is rehydrated."

He said the CIA opted to use an invasive procedure because of the danger posed by feeding the suspects intravenous fluids using needles.

Daily Mail wrote that rectal rehydration was done on at least five detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah. Hayden admitted it was done on five prisoners, but he insisted all instances it was performed was to address a health problem of the detainee, and it was not a part of the interrogation process or a way to make the suspect admit something.

Feinstein said it was at least six instances, not five, when rectal infusion was performed. One detainee was give pureed "hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins." She said the procedure was done on one prisoner to show the CIA was in total control over the prisoners, while excessive force was used on two suspects on whom the forced rectal feeding were done.

The Senate report listed several torture methods used by the CIA on the 9/11 suspects such as waterboarding, sleep deprivations and infusing liquid into their rectum.

TagsCIA, Torture, rectal hydration, diane feinstein, William HAyden