From the Office of U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski:
MIKULSKI STATEMENT ON RELEASE OF DECLASSIFIED SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE REPORT ON PAST CIA TORTURE AND INTERROGATION PRACTICES
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today issued the following statement on the release of the Committee’s declassified report on the CIA’s past rendition, detention and interrogation practices. The report was reviewed and redacted in conjunction with the CIA and White House, and the Director for National Intelligence approved its declassification:
“I support the release of the declassified Executive Summary, Findings, Conclusions and Additional Views of the committee’s report on the CIA’s past rendition, detention and interrogation program. With the release of this report, the American people finally have the information they need to understand the CIA’s interrogation practices that spanned 2001 through 2009, when President Obama put an end to the Bush-era program.
“The CIA’s practices went against our values as Americans and damaged America’s global reputation. The committee’s report shows not only that torture didn’t extract the ‘otherwise unavailable’ intelligence that some CIA officials claimed, it didn’t work as a policy or in practice.
“My views against torture have been consistent with those of Senator John McCain, whose stance against torture is particularly compelling given his own experiences as a prisoner of war. I have also supported the use of interrogation techniques as laid out in the Army Field Manual and have decried the use of contractors by the CIA in the torture of detainees.
“I have consistently opposed the repugnance, legality and efficacy of torture. I supported FBI Director Robert Mueller’s directive saying FBI agents may not participate in torture. I’ve repeatedly and publicly expressed my frustration about being lied to and manipulated by some CIA officials over many years. As I said during the Intelligence Committee’s hearing confirming John Brennan as CIA Director, ‘I’m going to be blunt and this will be no surprise to you, sir — but I’ve been on this Committee for more than 10 years, and with the exception of Mr. Panetta, I feel I’ve been jerked around by every CIA Director.’
“To be clear, my support for this report in no way diminishes my respect for the men and women of the CIA, who are faithfully and legally doing their duties. The CIA’s intelligence professionals put their lives at risk for our country. They deserve our support and respect.
“I would like to thank Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein for her leadership as well as my committee colleagues from both sides of the aisle who supported this investigation. Throughout the frustrating and sometimes contentious process of producing this report, we never gave up on pursuing the truth. Thanks also to the Committee staff who worked tirelessly on this report at great sacrifice to themselves and their families.
“This report sheds light on a complicated episode in American history, but it’s also a testament to the value of never giving up on the search for truth and accountability. I hope that future generations will read it, study it, learn from it and make sure that torture is never used again by the U.S. Government.”
Freestate says
We have a much bigger problem. Our President and his administration (with the support of the Senator) “go against our values as Americans and damaged Americas global reputation”.
Politicians suck says
OK Babs, you’re on record as officially against what you were once tacitly for. You support the release of this report (which does nothing other than aid and embolden our enemies) because as the pathetic sycophant shill you are, you were told to by your masters who decided that politically now is the time. While the enemy (a collection of weak minded savages who are pathetic enough to be easily convinced that martyrdom will somehow result in their goals actually coming to fruition) are firing up the handycam to film brutal executions of shackled innocents, you and your ilk, such as our amateur in chief, Hillary, Reid, Pellosi, ad nauseum… are busy shouting to the world that America is a bunch of pu$$ies who feel so terribly guilty that monsters whose fondest dream is seeing every American dead had their sleep interrupted. You and your ilk who hide behind your security details and tell the rest of us how we need to empathize with vile monsters and somehow believe murdering them with drones while hiding under a desk in the White House basement is more noble make me sick. As for the truth of this report, dream on… there is no truth in DC… The situation was probably far worse than this report states, and I say hooray. While you and your ilk would trade monstrous murderers for deserters (I can see how a deserter would seem a hero in your cowardly crowd), I’d nerve gas the whole Gitmo lot today and consider it a good start. You want to do something worthwhile? Close the border. But no, no one in DC will do anything about the border until some terrorist tragedy occurs and the perp can be directly tracked as having crossed the open border – then you and your ilk will tell us how you were for closing the border all along… no, how you heroically tried to close the border repeatedly against huge opposition and whatever the political consequences to yourself. You are a poster child for term limits. What are you like 110 now?
Dave says
Lady, you are a complete idiot!
Arturro Nasney says
When I enlisted my outh had words to the effect of “..to protect the Nation form all enemies from inside and without..” I see this action of releasing this unsupported report as pure and unadulterated treason. Shouldn’t the folks at the Pentagon be coming across the river to arrest all of these shills?
ASK says
“It’s important that people take a stand and representatives take a stand on whether they believe torture should be allowed. I think we should not have torture.”
–Rand Paul
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/cia-torture-report-republicans-react-113432.html#ixzz3LWBJvyFZ
SIMON says
Mikulski and the rest of the democrats have no problem shielding terrorists and treating American citizens like crap by refusing to deport illegal aliens.
You are a detestable troll.
rjbaskins says
Babs, crawl back into your hole, it’s not time for you to run for re-elecion yet. Democrats dispise the military and any organization that protects this country. Your buddy Diane Fienstien, has a hard on for the C.I.A. because they suppossedly snooped into her computers. Funny she didn’t give a SH*t when they were alledgedly snooping into private citizen’ computers.. You are all a bunch of hypocrites
Fedd Upp says
In a perverse sense, maybe what supporters of Babs, the Communist-in-Chief in the WH, and their acolytes need to see is the fulfillment of the promises of ISIS: “We’ll see you in New York” and “We’ll raise the ISIS flag in the WH.” Perhaps it is going to take such drastic steps by the terrorist heathens to slap some sense into people who support these anti-American Communist politico’s and send them packing. WTH happened to all that patriotism that was present just after 9-11? Americans have such short memories.
Gee, the question of the day for ISIS and AL-Quaeda is this” Would you prefer to be waterboarded or killed in a drone strike? It’s not OK to use sleep deprivation, etc. but, to NoBama, it’s OK to have killed innocents using drones. If, as this midget militant Senator alleges, no actionable intell was gleaned from using Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, we would never have found out where Bin Laden was hiding. Fact, Babs. Lastly, you, Pelosi, and FeinSTAIN, are lying when you state that Congress was not informed about the EIT program, methods, used, black sites, and so forth. Liars, all of you.
Fedd Upp says
One more thing, Babs. You just need to change a few words in your statement (“The CIA’s practices went against our values as Americans and damaged America’s global reputation.”) Change it to: “The NSA worldwide spying practices went against our values as Americans and damaged America’s global reputation.” My European friends will affirm that NSA has incredibly damaged our reputation as will Americans spied on for no lawful reason.