Releasing the report on the CIA was a great disservice

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Was it torture or, as others would say, harsh tactics used to obtain intelligence to protect our citizens? That’s a matter of opinion.

The fact is that our country has subjected our enemies to severe punishment, such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, forcing detainees to stand or remain in stressful positions, slamming them against walls and confining them to small boxes, for some time. There should be no reason for a report, despite the fact that we have used those tactics to obtain crucial intelligence.

It blows my mind that such a report was released to the public — and therefore to our enemies.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has spent years fighting the CIA in an attempt to produce evidence of abuse, finally got her wish. Thirteen years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a 500-page assessment of the harsh interrogation and detention techniques utilized by the CIA from 2002 to 2007.

The report, based on more than 6 million pages of documents and photos, presents evidence that the CIA’s interrogation methods during those years were brutal and that the agency went so far as to lie and cover up the tactics to the White House, the Justice Department, Congress and the American people. Said Feinstein, “If the Senate can declassify this report, we will be able to ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted.”

Nonsense. What a vastly oversimplified statement.

The CIA used tactics that produced vital information that not only led to the capture of some of the most dangerous terrorists, but also saved American lives. The fact that these materials were made public is a travesty. Feinstein should have considered that it was un-American to release this information.

Members of ISIS and Al Qaeda can cut off the heads of our citizens, but we can’t pour water on the terrorists’ faces? Three thousand people were killed on our own soil on Sept. 11, 2001, and every method we used to ensure that this never happens again is now public knowledge?

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