I was beginning to delve into the report on torture released by the Senate Intelligence Committee when my daughter texted. A senior at college, she was following the New York Times twitter feed highlighting the executive summary as reporters raced to the end.
“Everything that’s coming out with this torture stuff is incredible,” she wrote. “What is going to happen…”
As a human rights advocate who’s closely followed this issue since September 11, 2001, I had to be frank. Very little in the report surprised me. Most of the information has been published or revealed by US officials or by victims. Torture even had an important connection to my daughter’s home state, North Carolina. A CIA contractor, AeroContractors, is based just outside Raleigh and flew many of the journeys that brought detainees to torture sites. Torture, in other words, had its roots right in our backyard.
It’s no secret that torture doesn’t work. As the Times pointed out, “the most extreme interrogation methods played no role in disrupting terrorism plots, capturing terrorist leaders — even finding Bin Laden.”
Torture took place in American facilities as well as secret “dark sites” in countries like Poland. Methods were brutal, despicable and wantonly cruel.
“There will be some internal reforms and a lot of screaming,” I texted back to my daughter. “But a Republican congress will be sworn in in January. It’s lucky Feinstein pushed for the report to come out now or the report never would have seen the light of day.”
“This all makes me so sad,” she responded.
Yes. The report, while not surprising in its description of the torture program, is of immense value for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it’s a government admitting, at least from one sector, massive wrong-doing. This is not only laudable; it’s unusual. Most countries commit abuses but never have the fortitude and sense of justice to (at least partially) come clean. For that, the US government and Senator Dianne Feinstein in particular, deserve recognition. “Releasing this report is an important step to restoring our values and showing the world that we are a just society,” she noted today.
Like many, I knew that the CIA had attempted to hide its use of torture, even though, as defenders still insist, they had authorization from the Bush White House. But the extent of the coverup is put on dramatic display in this report. As the Washington Post noted, the report records how “CIA officials allegedly deceived their superiors at the White House, members of Congress and even sometimes their peers about how the interrogation program was being run and what it had achieved. In one case, an internal CIA memo relays instructions from the White House to keep the program secret from then-Secretary of State Colin Powell out of concern that he would ‘blow his stack if he were to be briefed on what’s been going on.'”
The suggestion that releasing this report makes the United States look weak or puts our armed forces at greater risk is absurd. The world already knew what was coming in the report. Covering it up would only let these wounds fester and shield the very corruption we need to aggressively address.
Torture made us less safe. Torture earned us many enemies. Torture corrupted our government and out security forces. And now, torture is teaching our young people that the country they are inheriting is profoundly broken.
I’m sure my daughter isn’t the only one making the connection between this report and the protests against police brutality sweeping the country. We aspire to be a beacon of freedom and justice, but we behave like a street thug, even to our own.
Now what? Sign the petitions that would formally make torture illegal. Write Congress to support this report and urge further action, including the prosecution of those responsible. This doesn’t need to be a partisan issue. After all, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), himself a torture victim, was one of Sen. Feinstein’s nost vocal supporters. “The American people deserve to know,” he said today on the Senate floor.
