Today, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its long-awaited report on the use of enhanced interrogation procedures by the CIA during the last decade – it was important that they do so. America cannot put this dark chapter behind it without a full explanation to the American people of what was done in their name. America does not torture – that is not who we are, nor who we want to be. But America did torture, and it is vital that we never do so again. Torture is immoral, contrary to our ideals, inconsistent with the rule of law and destructive of our democracy. Even now, there are prominent voices claiming that the enhanced interrogation techniques used to elicit information from terrorists did not amount to torture. I challenge anyone undergoing the techniques described in the report while in captivity to make such a claim. Nevertheless, while there is any dispute over what these procedures amounted to, it is all the more important that the American people know precisely what was involved so they can form their own judgment, and they can only do so through the publication of this information. The report states that the CIA misled or lied to Congress and the White House, not only about the effectiveness of the techniques used on detainees, but about the program more generally. Although I was not yet a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the time, I am deeply troubled by these allegations since Congressional oversight cannot function effectively without a willingness by the intelligence community to be open and candid – even if only in a classified session. The report also concludes that torture was not effective in gaining critical intelligence. This is unsurprising – those experienced in interrogations have long concluded that people will say anything under torture and for every good lead, you may get a hundred bad ones. Some will dispute this conclusion and say the torture ‘worked,’ but the most fundamental point is that we should not be engaged in torture no matter what its efficacy. To say we should do so because it works, is to say that Americas most cherished values must give way to brutal expediency. That would be a tragic outcome and one I hope this report will quickly put to rest.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 18:50:00 +0000
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