US Senator Ron Wyden on Thursday said the American people will be “profoundly disturbed” by a summary of a Senate report on the CIA’s torture techniques.
Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, also urged the Obama administration to swiftly declassify parts of the blistering 6,200-page Senate report which have been approved by the Senate panel for public release.
“I believe the American people will be profoundly disturbed by the contents of this report,” the senior senator from Oregon wrote in a news release. “The American people will see that much of what CIA officials have said about the effectiveness of coercive interrogations was simply untrue.”
“I have spoken about the intelligence leadership’s culture of misinformation before and it continues to be a problem to this day,” Wyden added.
“It is going to make many people uncomfortable,” he wrote, “but getting the facts about torture out to the American people will keep these mistakes from being repeated and make our national intelligence agencies stronger and more effective in the long run.”
The 6,300-page report prepared by the Senate Intelligence Committee provides details of torture techniques – including water-boarding, wall-slamming, and shackling – used by the CIA under the administration of George W. Bush.
On Thursday, the Senate panel voted to make public parts of the report. The summary of the report will go to the White House and the CIA. According to Politico, US President Barack Obama is the one who decides whether the summary should be further redacted before being disclosed.
The report has also caused a deep split between the US Intelligence Community and the Senate panel, which is tasked with overseeing the government’s spying activities. Each side has accused the other of spying.
AHT/ISH
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