Senate Committee Votes to Release Details of CIA Torture Methods
Sen. Dianne Feinstein gets her way with the CIA. By United States Congress, US Senate Photo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s recent alarm about the CIA’s interrogation methods since 9/11 spurred the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she chairs, to vote Thursday in favor of releasing key details from a lengthy report about the CIA’s activities.
Feinstein and the 10 other committee members who supported the public airing of a considerably condensed version — some 480 pages — of the 6,200-page report hope to make their account public within a month. But the vote wasn’t unanimous, as Voice of America reported later that day:
“And the results, I think, were shocking. The report exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation. It chronicles a stain on our history that must never be allowed to happen again. This is not what Americans do,” said Feinstein.
The committee’s vote was 11-to-3, with some minority Republicans voting with Democrats in favor of releasing the summary.
The panel’s top Republican, Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, said it’s time for the country to move on.
VOA added that President Obama signaled his support for the report’s release. (Aside: Remember the Obama administration’s early days of “White House transparency”? Quaint.)
Read more about Feinstein’s change of heart “from a senator who previously has worked overtime to justify the subversion of democratic governance by the CIA and other spy agencies” in Robert Scheer’s recent column here.
–Posted by Kasia Anderson
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