WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- A secret report prepared by CIA inspector general last year warned that interrogation procedures approved by the spy agency after the Sept. 11 attacks might violate the international convention against torture.

    In a front-page report on Wednesday, The New York Times cited former and current intelligence officials as saying that the previously undisclosed findings from the report, which was issued in the spring of 2004, reflected deep unease within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)about the interrogation procedures.

    A list of 10 techniques authorized in early 2002 for use against terror suspects went well beyond those authorized by the military for use on prisoners of war, according to the daily.

    The CIA report drafted by John L. Helgerson did not conclude that the techniques constituted torture, which is also prohibited under US law, but Helgerson did find that the techniques appeared to constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under the convention, the officials said.

    The convention, drafted by the United Nations, bans torture, which is defined as the infliction of "severe" physical or mental pain or suffering, and prohibits lesser abuses that fall short of torture if they are "cruel, inhuman or degrading."

    The United States is a signatory, but with some reservations set when it was ratified by the Senate in 1994.

    The CIA report discussed particular techniques used by the agency against particular prisoners, including about three dozen terror suspects being held in secret locations around the world, the officials were quoted as saying.

    Among them was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is said to have organized the Sept. 11 attacks and has been detained in a secret location by the CIA since his capture in March 2003. He is believed to have been subject to waterboarding, in which a prisoner is strapped to a board and made to believe that he is drowning, the Times report said.

    The Senate approved an amendment to its version of the 2006 defense spending bill in September, which bans the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of any detainees held by the US government and some techniques that the CIA has used in some interrogations overseas.

    The measure was opposed by the White House, which has proposed exempting the CIA from the measure.

    In a proposal first reported by The Washington Post in late October, the White House said the measure barring inhuman treatment should not apply to counter-terrorism operations conducted abroad or to operations conducted by "an element of the US government" other than the Defense Department.

    The US military was embattled by the world media when the Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke out in early 2004. Enditem