Study: Over Half of Americans Think CIA Torture Methods Revealed in Senate Report Are Justified

How are we ever going to learn from our mistakes when we won’t even admit they were errors at all? That’s the question that comes to mind when looking at the Pew Research Center’s recent national survey about the CIA’s interrogation methods.

Maybe the 51 percent of Americans who think CIA interrogation methods were justified missed the part of the report that explains how ineffective the tactics were. Or at least they must have missed the part that describes the torture. Sadly, that seems like wishful thinking.

Following the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA interrogation practices in the period following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 51% of the public says they think the CIA methods were justified, compared with just 29% who say they were not justified; 20% do not express an opinion.

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Dec. 11-14 among 1,001 adults, finds that amid competing claims over the effectiveness of CIA interrogation methods, 56% believe they provided intelligence that helped prevent terrorist attacks, while just half as many (28%) say they did not provide this type of intelligence.

Partisan divides on these questions are wide. A large majority of Republicans (76%) say the interrogation methods used by the CIA after 9/11 were justified. Democrats are divided – 37% say the methods were justified, while 46% disagree. About twice as many liberal Democrats (65%) as conservative and moderate Democrats (32%) say the CIA’s interrogation techniques were not justified.

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—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata