'Torture' Report Released by Democrats in Senate

BALTIMORE, Maryland December 9, 2013 - There are many conflicting views about the so-called "torture" report released today by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Read without context, the edited release is downright appalling according to those who have seen it. Senator John McCain of Arizona - a longtime critic of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques - spoke with emotion on the Senate Floor, the lone Republican to do so. Other members of the GOP were critical of the release, seeing it as a political ploy just weeks before the Democrats lose control of the Senate and their ability to ever release the report, at least officially. The GOP also says, and the Obama administration agrees, that the release will endanger United States personnel and facilities abroad and even here at home. Military units have been put on high alert as a result as Obama seeks to avoid the so-called situation on the night of the Benghazi massacre, when, it was claimed, no appropriate Military Units were in a position to offer assistance to those under attack at Benghazi. Democrats ordered the preparation of the report and it cost taxpayers $40 million to do so.

The enhanced interrogation techniques drawing the most criticism are no longer used by the CIA. They were employed in the immediate wake of the 9/11 Massacres when intelligence indicated that follow-up attacks were imminent. The USA military and the CIA were able to capture several top Al Qaeda leaders, and when normal interrogation failed to loosen their lips, interrogators sought permission to use the so-called enhanced techniques. Ono of those enhanced techniques is known as water boarding, where a detainee is lashed to a chair at the end of a long board and dunked under water for varying periods of time. Another technique is sleep deprivation, and the report is said to document one instance where a detainee was kept awake for over seven days. Senator Diane Feinstein of California, a leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says one reason she insisted on the release of the report was that CIA officials continually lied to her about the techniques being used. The lies ran the gamut, from the duration of the techniques, the precise nature of the techniques, and how often they were employed. The Senate Committee is charged with overseeing the CIA and their ability to do so depends on the CIA being candid with committee members. The CIA, on the other hand, argue that telling the Senate Committee too much almost guarantees that sensitive and potentially harmful information will be leaked by Senators or their staffers.

Eric Holder, the ultra far left Attorney General, is said to be combing the report in advance of attempting to prosecute some of those involved in using the enhanced techniques. President Bush had a bevy of legal experts fully vet the techniques, and they were uniformly approved. In addition, CIA and military officials fully briefed congressional leaders prior to the use of the techniques. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were among those who were briefed and who approved of use of the techniques. These briefings were taking place in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when Democrats were anxious to be seen as spearheading the United States' response to 9/11.