Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, said Monday that a forthcoming report on U.S. interrogation techniques is important to the democratic process, saying the report wouldn’t happen in countries like North Korea, China, or Russia.
“I think it exposes what the world already knows, and that is that the United States engaged in torture,” she said on “CBS This Morning.” “My feeling about this is that this is a gut check moment for our democracy.”
A redacted summary of the report, expected to be highly critical of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques employed during the George W. Bush administration, could be released by Senate Democrats early this week.
“The world knows we tortured, but does the world know yet that we’ll hold up our values and hold our government accountable?” she said. “This report would never happen in North Korea, or China, or Russia, but in the United States we hold our government accountable and I think that process is so important, so fundamental to our democracy, that it’s essential that this report comes out.”
Some Republicans are resisting the report’s release, with Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, saying it will incite America’s enemies. But Ms. McCaskill said it should be released.
“Ultimately, the CIA has to have oversight,” Ms. McCaskill said. “If this report doesn’t come out, then we all need to get comfortable with the fact that in America, the CIA has no oversight.”
Gen. Michael Hayden, who served as CIA director from 2006-2009, rebutted claims that the agency lied about the program during his time.
“To say that we relentlessly over an expanded period of time lied to everyone about a program that wasn’t doing any good - that beggars the imagination,” Mr. Hayden said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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