J. Scott Applewhite/AP/File
CBS News has confirmed that the Obama administration is bracing itself for a Tuesday release of the long-awaited CIA torture report, though the timing ultimately remains at the discretion of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sources familiar with the matter confirm to CBS News State Department Correspondent Margaret Brennan that Secretary of State John Kerry called and requested, but did not pressure, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, to hold off on releasing the report. The administration has some concerns about the safety of diplomats abroad.
Prepare for the Republican minority view to be released on the same day, along with the CIA rebuttal. The 5-year Feinstein investigation ended up having zero Republican participation; nor did the investigation see fit to interview those CIA officials and interrogators directly involved with the detention and interrogation program. So essentially, it all gets to be interpreted and presented by the critics who first led in with the verdict and followed with the investigation through a confirmation biased magnifying glass lens.
Army Lt. Col. Douglas Pryer wrote a guest blogpost at Thomas Ricks (long-time “torture” critic) that ridicules the notion that this Report is partisan, or that it matters:
Predictably, torture’s acolytes are already responding: The report was a Republican witch hunt led by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Facts were selectively culled by partisan staffers in order to paint the program in the worst possible light. Other staffers could’ve selected different facts and reached completely opposite conclusions. Sure, there were problems with the program, but these techniques really did “work.” They saved lives. Someday, the truth will be revealed, and the men and women who performed this “hard, dirty work” for good ends will be lauded as the true heroes they are. In the mean time, trust us regarding this program’s success. WE KNOW.
Hogwash. I’ve never believed a word of what torture’s advocates say, and neither should you.
His experience as a counterintelligence officer is a good read. But it echoes the same arguments that military interrogators like “Matthew Alexander” (Anthony Camarino) have been claiming (side note: Pentagon’s military detention and interrogation program under Rumsfeld was not the same as the CIA program- nor should it have been. Feinstein’s 5-year investigation is an examination of the CIA- not military). But they, along with FBI interrogator Ali Soufan, are countered by a CIA interrogator who actually was involved in the program. Essentially, Ali Soufan, Lt. Col. Preyer, Camarino, and other likeminded “experts” are speaking from the outside about a program they were not apart of to witness from the inside.
This Report is so egregious, that former CIA senior intelligence officials are launching a rebuttal website, CIASavedLives.com according to an exclusive at Foreign Policy Cable:
“It’s a one-stop shopping place for the other side,” Bill Harlow, a top CIA spokesman during the George W. Bush administration, told Foreign Policy. “With the website … we’ll be able to put out newly declassified documents, documents that were previously released but not well read and host a repository for op-eds and media appearances by various officials.”
Joined by other senior CIA alumni, including former directors Michael Hayden and George Tenet, Harlow is coordinating an aggressive response to the release of the 500-page executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, which includes new and disturbing details about the scale and severity of the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation program. With the summary expected to drop on Tuesday, Harlow plans to make his site live the very same day. (At the moment, typing in the URL brings users to a page administered by the caddish web hosting company GoDaddy.com).
“We have plans to correct the record as we see it and help the people whose names are being dragged through the mud,” said Harlow.
Interestingly enough, the White House has not been very supportive of the Feinstein efforts to release the Report with fewer redactions. Similar to the “human” rights leftists’ desire to release more abu Ghraib photos and the White House attempts to block them, the White House has been a roadblock- not a supporter- of the Report, even though Senator Feinstein and President Obama stand on the same side of the ideological fence.
The last thing the Obama Administration wants or needs is another attack on a U.S. embassy. I think most normal Americans have moved on. The last HVT to be given CIA swimming lessons was KSM in 2003 w(yes, the practice stopped under President Bush, not President Obama). So what’s the point in the $40 million dollar pet Feinstein project? How does this enhance America’s image abroad (which liberals are always hand-wringing over)? It only serves the interest of the enemy (propaganda fodder for Jihadi and Islamist groups) and anti-Americanism. NBC news, by Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann:
The biggest political story over the next 48 hours is likely to be the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report this week on the torture of CIA prisoners during the Bush era. And even before its official release, folks are already preparing for a fight. “A long-awaited Senate report condemning torture by the Central Intelligence Agency has not even been made public yet, but former President George W. Bush’s team has decided to link arms with former intelligence officials and challenge its conclusions,” the New York Times says. But it’s quite possible that the political fallout — domestically — could be small. After all, many Americans have already made up their minds on these interrogation practices long ago. But the real immediate impact could be overseas, with the Obama administration bracing for the report to produce violence and unrest directed at U.S. embassies and western personnel in the Middle East. That is why Secretary of State John Kerry called Senate Intel Chair Dianne Feinstein to warn about the report’s release — not to necessarily scuttle the report, but instead to give everyone an ample heads up about the potential overseas blowback. And remember that this call happened before the failed hostage rescue mission in Yemen over the weekend.
President Bush has recently offered up his support and defense for the patriotism and honor of the rough men and women who make the hard measures to keep us safe:
Embassies have been alerted, Feinstein remains undeterred
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell has more: “Senior intelligence officials tell NBC News that they briefed the White House, Congress, and interagency partners of a classified intelligence assessment that there was a “heightened potential” that the release of the so-called Senate ‘torture report’ could ‘stimulate a violent response.’ It was that assessment that led to the alerts in Egypt and other embassies, closing down visa operations and strengthening security. Similar precautions have been taken at military posts around the world. The intelligence assessment was followed up by the call that was reported on Friday from Secretary of State Kerry to Senate Intelligence Chair Feinstein — during which he suggested delaying the release of the report. As of late Sunday, Feinstein remains undeterred, colleagues say, and the report is expected to be released as early as Tuesday.
CBS news, with Michael Hayden interviewed:
How can Feinstein believe that conducting this investigation at this time and so partisanly helps anyone except America’s enemies?
Exit question: Does the release of this Report help improve America’s moral standing and image (I could care less) in the world; and, more importantly, will it keep America safer?
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
@another+vet:
Oh yeah. Don’t get me wrong though, you actually feel like something went horribly wrong and you’ve awakened in a foreign POW camp. Those boys know what they’re doing.
@Aqua:
Something the people who wrote this report seem to miss.
@Bill:
Isn’t it funny how the left says that the mess this country is in (with $18 trillion debt) 6 years into the Obama administration is a problem that Obama inherited but can’t admit that it was the [non]actions of Clinton that facilitated the 9-11 attack blaming it entirely on George Bush although he had only been in office 8 months?
Remember when the Democrats, including Obama, said that the debt created under Bush was unpatriotic? Remember those days?
Now Obama is asking for a AUMF with no restrictions, unprecedented in our history. That means that he can send American troop to any area of the globe, spend any amount of money, without Congressional oversight. The man who said he would end wars is now asking for a black check to send our troops into war.