Justin Amash statement on CIA torture report

[jct74]

Justin Amash
December 12 at 2:15pm

It's with a heavy heart that I've begun reading the CIA torture report released by the Senate intelligence committee. It documents inhumane acts committed by representatives of our government. Members of our intelligence community have extraordinarily difficult jobs, and the rank-and-file employees serve our country with distinction. It should sadden all of us that a few in the intelligence community have cast a shadow on the important work of so many.

Most troubling for a free country such as ours is the repeated, perhaps systematic deception committed by senior public servants against elected officials who are entrusted with supervising their work. The nature of intelligence work requires certain secrecy, but it is unconscionable for senior appointees to hide essential details of interrogation from Congress and even the president. We have seen before the tendency of some leadership in the intelligence community to obscure their controversial activities in a way that prevents effective oversight. The habit of keeping watchdogs in the dark must end.
The United States remains a beacon of liberty to the world. The horrific acts of a few, committed in secret, are not consistent with our values. But making those acts public and calling those responsible to account can heal our country and reaffirms what's best about it.

https://www.facebook.com/repjustinam...13407138698694

[Suzanimal]

The habit of keeping watchdogs in the dark must end.

I don't think the "watchdogs" were kept in the dark.

[Lucille]

Good Lord, the comments! They justify the CIA's brutality by bringing up the brutality of the terrorists. They not only don't care that our government has stooped to the level of its enemies, they cheer it.

They have become what they claim they despise, and they don't even seem to care the US has lost what little moral authority this country had left.

Willingness to torture became, first within elite government and opinion-making circles, then in the culture generally, and finally as a partisan GOP talking point, a litmus test of seriousness with respect to the fight against terrorism. That – proving one’s seriousness in the fight – was its primary purpose from the beginning, in my view. It was only secondarily about extracting intelligence. It certainly wasn’t about instilling fear or extracting false confessions – these would not have served American purposes. It was never about “them” at all. It was about us. It was our psychological security blanket, our best evidence that we were “all-in” in this war, the thing that proved to us that we were fierce enough to win.

[angelatc]

I don't think the "watchdogs" were kept in the dark.

Don't be silly. Of course it's dark when your head is in the sand. 'Merica!