At a time when public confidence in Congress continues to reach new lows, the recent release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s use of torture stands out as a reason to recognize elected officials for a job done well. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King deserve recognition for their votes in support of making the committee’s report public.
As seems to be the case with many of Washington’s most contentious issues, Collins and King stood at the center of the debate over whether or not to publicly release the results of the committee’s report. Their efforts to release the report’s executive summary should be applauded and underscore the importance of checks and balances in our democracy. After all, this is a report that the CIA sought to thwart by hacking the Senate’s computer to steal documents essential to the committee’s investigation.
Without the committee’s work, we would have no knowledge of the CIA’s brutality. The CIA should be subject to vigorous oversight as an agency of the government, and Collins and King firmly stood for the sort of democratic principles that will prevent future abuses.
While it seems difficult to believe that anyone would see fit to argue in favor of the use of torture, those arguments are being made. King has been quick to reply, calling torture “a stain on this country.” King’s willingness to stand up to defenders of torture, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, clearly demonstrates that Maine is well represented in the public debate about the moral imperative to, as King puts it, “take this step to say who we are and that we’re not going to be doing this again.”
In the future, in the interest of safety and security, the American people must be able to place their trust in an intelligence community that can make difficult decisions in times of crisis. The intelligence community must be open about the tactics they use, particularly when dealing with the congressional committees charged with oversight. Misleading legislators and their staff only weakens the credibility of intelligence agencies and undermines the nation’s security. Accountability to elected officials is a valuable check on the power of any one agency.
The contents of the report’s executive summary have been thoroughly reported, and the horrifying details of the brutal treatment of detainees, many of whom turned out to be completely innocent, should shock the conscience of every American.
The report also shows in great detail that the torture was unnecessary and did not produce useful information to save American lives. Engaging in torture compromised America’s standing in the world, particularly with our allies, and lessened our ability to condemn the brutal practices of other nations and terrorist groups.
As King has noted, however, whether torture works or does not is beside the point. It’s legally and morally wrong. Defenders of the CIA’s practices, however, continue to claim that methods employed were necessary for the country’s safety. Statements to that effect miss the mark both by willfully ignoring the destruction done to America’s international reputation by engaging in illegal and violent actions as well as obscuring the debate with logic based more in pop culture television programming than in the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, which was based on CIA cables, memos and interviews. No one reading the report and understanding the facts of the program is able to make a straight-faced case for torture as essential to national security.
While courage is a trait too often deemed present in elected officials whose bravest action is merely casting a vote, both of Maine’s senators faced considerable pressure from those who opposed releasing the report, including some of their fellow lawmakers, as well members of intelligence community, but still chose to do the right thing.
Maine’s senators represented their constituents well when they took a stand and decided to investigate and conduct a public reckoning regarding the actions undertaken by the CIA.
It is difficult to find a bright spot in the darkness surrounding the report’s disturbing content, but the work undertaken by the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the actions of Maine lawmakers to hold the CIA accountable, is hopefully a sign and a step toward ensuring that similar immoral acts are never repeated in the name of national security.
Jesse Graham is executive director of the Maine People’s Alliance.