Former Interrogators Call on Senators to Release CIA Torture Report

Washington, D.C. – Twenty of the nation’s top former interrogators and intelligence officials sent a letter to members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) urging them to vote to declassify and make public the committee’s report on post-9/11 CIA torture tactics.

“It is beyond time for this critical issue of national importance to be driven by facts – not rhetoric or partisan interest,” said the former interrogators in today’s letter. “We therefore urge you to vote in favor of declassifying and releasing the SSCI study.”

The 6,000-plus page report on the former CIA detention and torture program was adopted by a bipartisan vote of 9-6 in December 2012. The report’s public release promises to formally set the record straight on claims that torture played a significant role in gaining actionable intelligence, such as the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.  Senate intelligence committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has denied that torture or other abusive interrogation techniques played any such role.

“Based on our experience, torture and other forms of abusive or coercive techniques are more likely to generate unreliable information and have repeatedly proven to be counterproductive as a means of securing the enduring cooperation of a detained individual,” wrote the interrogators. “They increase the likelihood of receiving false or misleading information, undermine this nation’s ability to work with key international partners, and bolster the recruiting narratives of terrorist groups.”

Press

Published on February 26, 2014

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