Senate Panel Votes To Release CIA Torture Report

Last edited Thu Apr 3, 2014, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Associated Press

Apr 3, 3:55 PM EDT
By BRADLEY KLAPPER and STEPHEN BRAUN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate Intelligence Committee voted Thursday to release parts of a hotly contested, secret report that harshly criticizes CIA terror interrogations after 9/11, and the White House said it would instruct intelligence officials to cooperate fully.

The panel voted 11-3 to order the declassification of almost 500 pages of a 6,300-page review that concluded waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation methods" were excessively cruel and ineffective in producing valuable intelligence. Even some Republicans who agree with the spy agency that the findings are inaccurate voted in favor of declassification, saying it was important for the country to move on.

The intelligence committee and the CIA are embroiled in a bitter dispute related to the three-year study. Senators accuse the agency of spying on their investigation and deleting files. The CIA says Senate staffers illegally accessed information. The Justice Department is reviewing competing criminal referrals.

"The purpose of this review was to uncover the facts behind the secret program and the results, I think, were shocking," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the committee chairwoman. "The report exposes brutality that stands in sharp 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."

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