Washington, D.C. — Center for American Progress Vice President for National Security and International Policy Vikram Singh issued the following statement after the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its long-awaited report on the use of torture by the CIA after 9/11:
We commend Sen. Feinstein and her colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee for their courage and diligence in the long effort to show the American people the facts about the CIA’s use of torture and secret prisons in the years after 9/11.
Using CIA documents, Senate Intelligence Committee investigators exposed that abusive interrogations were more widespread than previously acknowledged, that they produced little valuable intelligence, and that the CIA misled Congress and the White House about the effectiveness of these techniques. In some instances, interrogators exceeded even the lax limits imposed by Bush administration lawyers.
Torture is always wrong. The rejection of torture by nations has been one of the great advances of freedom in the modern era. We also know that it is ineffective. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report vindicates President Barack Obama’s decision at the outset of his administration to prohibit torture and close down secret prisons.
The Senate report is an important step toward putting this dark episode behind us once and for all. In light of the findings, the CIA should recommit to reforms that will ensure America’s brave intelligence officers are never asked to violate U.S. law and fundamental human rights in the course of duty.
Related resource: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Is Right: Torture Was Useless in Finding Bin Laden by Ken Sofer
For more information, contact Tom Caiazza at [email protected] or 202.481.7141.
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