Heinrich Calls For Declassification And Full Release Of Torture Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 9, 2019) - On the 5-year anniversary of the release of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s oversight study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) issued the following statement:

“Five years ago today, the Senate Intelligence Committee released the 500-page summary of the Committee’s study on the CIA’s detention and interrogation techniques. 

“The Committee’s objective and fact-based study is the only comprehensive study conducted of this program and the CIA’s treatment of its detainees in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. 

“The CIA called them ‘enhanced interrogations,’ but in reality, this was a program of deliberate and systematic torture. The CIA repeated myths of the effectiveness of torture to defend this as a necessary program that saved lives. But the reality is that in each and every case, the Committee found that the intelligence was already available from other sources or provided by the detainees themselves before they were tortured. 

“We must hold fast to the lessons of this study, which are as relevant today as they were five years ago. Not only does the study show that torture was not effective, but it also makes crystal clear that torture is immoral and un-American.

“At a time of increasing moral ambiguity, we cannot afford to forget this dark period in American history. To that end, the full 6,700-page study should be declassified to the extent possible and released. We must continue to reckon with the legacy of this program, undertaken in the name of the American people, to ensure that it never happens again.”