Feinstein readies release of damning report on CIA terror programs

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein is seeking to draw maximum media attention as she prepares the to release “over the coming days” of the panel’s long anticipated and highly critical report on harsh CIA interrogation tactics used on terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks.

A 600-page redacted executive summary of the more than 6,000-page report on the agency’s “Coercive Interrogation Program” will be posted on a congressional website as early as Saturday but likely won’t go public before the start of next week, a source close to the committee told The Washington Times.

The document, culminating a five-year investigation that bitterly pitted Senate Democrats against current and former CIA officials is expected to re-ignite long-festering debates over the treatment of detainees by American intelligence officials in the name of preventing terrorist attacks.

The Coercive Interrogation Program was used by the CIA under former President George W. Bush. But President Obama in 2009 banned the use of such “enhanced interrogation techniques” as the simulated drowning practice known as waterboarding.

CIA agents are alleged to have used the practice against suspected terrorists held at “black sites” around the world.

Citing unidentified sources, The Associated Press reported late Friday that Secretary of State John Kerry reached out to Ms. Feinstein to rethink her plan to release the critical report.

The official said Mr. Kerry, a former senator himself, called Ms. Feinstein to talk about the implications of publicly releasing a declassified summary of her committee’s report given the combustible situations in various world hot spots, the AP account said.

Human rights activists and many U.S. lawmakers have denounced the practices as “torture,” arguing that U.S. government sponsorship of such practices was patently un-American.

Congressional aides and outside experts familiar with the report have said it is highly critical of waterboarding and concludes that such practices provided no key evidence in the hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Some CIA officials have argued the contrary. Leon Panetta, who headed the spy agency under President Obama from 2009 to 2011 wrote in his memoir published this year that “harsh interrogation … produced leads that helped our government understand al Qaeda’s organization, methods, and leadership.”

“We know we got important, even critical intelligence from individuals subjected to these enhanced interrogation techniques,” Mr. Panetta wrote.

The Intelligence Committee’s probe has been a source of unprecedented friction between Democrats and the CIA.

Tensions burst into the open last March when Mrs. Feinstein accused the agency of violating Constitutional separation-of-powers standards by hacking computers of Senate staffers conducting the investigation.

Current CIA Director John O. Brennan has denied the claim. But media reports maintain that CIA officials had taken the action after accusing Senate staffers of illegally acquiring classified documents from the agency. Dispute over the case continues to play behind closed doors at the Justice Department.

Mrs. Feinstein’s report, meanwhile, has exposed rifts among Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have disagreed on the question of whether enhanced interrogation actually worked, as well as on whether or not Intelligence Committee’s findings should be released publicly.

Republican staffers on the committee sided with CIA calls for secrecy early in Mrs. Feinstein’s probe and withdrew their participation in the investigation.

Two Republican senators in particular — Marco Rubio of Florida and James Risch of Idaho — have opposed making the report public, claiming it is the result of a “one-sided” and “partisan” investigation and that declassification “could endanger the lives of American diplomats and citizens overseas and jeopardize U.S. relations with other countries.”

But in a joint statement in April, the two said their criticisms did not mean they agreed with the CIA’s interrogation program.

“No member of the Senate condones torture, and the CIA’s execution of its former interrogation and detention program has harmed the agency and the reputation of the United States,” Mr. Rubio and Mr. Risch said. “The one saving grace about the eventual declassification of this report is that the minority views and the CIA position will also be declassified.”

But other prominent Republican senators have stood more firmly with Mrs. Feinstein.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, himself a victim of torture during the Vietnam war, has strongly denied the practices worked in drawing useful intelligence from terror suspects.

“I reject those on their face,” Mr. McCain said in August. “Even if there was some truth in it, the damage done to the United States of America’s reputation is incalculable.”

Mr. McCain was joined by Lindsay Graham, of South Carolina, who said the use of torture against detainees “violated” the “spirit of who we are” as Americans.

The comments by Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham dovetailed with President Obama’s own remarks on the issue.

“In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong,” Mr. Obama said at an August press conference. “We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values.”