TWO VIEWS
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who is scheduled to release a report today that is highly critical of the CIA's use of harsh techniques after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, in the Los Angeles Times
“When we had that program in place, we kept the country safe from any more mass casualty attacks, which was our objective.” It was “the right thing to do, and if I had to do it over again, I would do it.”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaking to The New York Times
The report from the Senate Intelligence Committee will be the first public accounting of the CIA’s use of torture on al-Qaida detainees held in secret facilities in Europe and Asia in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The committee is expected to release a 480-page executive summary of the more than 6,000-page report compiled by Democrats on the panel.
“There are some indications that the release of the report could lead to a greater risk that is posed to U.S. facilities and individuals all around the world,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday. “The administration has taken the prudent steps to ensure that the proper security precautions are in place at U.S. facilities around the globe.”
Likewise, Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said that “there is certainly the possibility that the release of this report could cause unrest” and therefore combatant commands have been directed to take protective measures.
According to many U.S. officials who have read it, the document alleges that the harsh interrogations failed to produce unique and life-saving intelligence. And it asserts that the CIA lied about the covert program to officials at the White House, the Justice Department and congressional oversight committees.
Former intelligence officials, seeking allies against the potentially damaging report, in recent days have privately reassured officials who served in the George W. Bush administration that they did not deceive them and have lobbied the former president’s advisers to speak out publicly on their behalf.
Bush himself, in an interview aired Sunday on CNN, said, “We’re fortunate to have men and women who work hard at the CIA serving on our behalf. These are patriots and whatever the report says, if it diminishes their contributions to our country, it is way off base.”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney went further on Monday, saying the harsh interrogations of terror suspects were “absolutely, totally justified,” and dismissing the Senate report as “just a crock.”
“As far as I’m concerned, they ought to be decorated, not criticized,” Cheney said of the intelligence officials who carried out the interrogations. “When we had that program in place, we kept the country safe from any more mass casualty attacks, which was our objective.”
While the White House has said it welcomes the release of the summary, officials say they do have concerns about potential security threats that could follow.
On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee chairwoman, to “consider” the timing of the release. White House officials said Obama had been aware that Kerry planned to raise the issue with Feinstein, but they insisted the president continued to support the report’s release.
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