THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION has begun to return copies of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program. The move is a significant setback to efforts to shine a light on one of the darkest chapters in recent American history.
Why does it matter? Because even though the American people have seen a declassified version of the report, the committee also sent members of the administration the full, 6,700-page classified report presumably so that the people with the appropriate security clearance could learn from the important information on the institutional and operational failures documented therein.
Now they’re giving the report back. And that means they’ll never learn the lessons it contains. If they don’t have the report they can’t read it.
