Bill Clinton defends release of CIA report

Former President Bill Clinton is defending the release of the Senate report on CIA interrogations, saying the disclosures have not put the U.S. at risk. 

{mosads}“I do not think we are in more danger because of this,” Clinton said in an interview for Fusion’s “America with Jorge Ramos” posted Thursday night. 

Many Republicans have criticized the release of the report, which asserts that the CIA tortured detainees using practices including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and rectal feeding under the Bush administration, warning it could incite violence against Americans. 

Hillary Clinton, a likely 2016 presidential contender, has not spoken publicly on the report since it was released on Tuesday.

In June, she backed the release of the report, saying, “I was not one of those who thought it was necessarily wise to ignore everything that had happened. I thought we needed more transparency.”

She added that she did not want prosecutions of CIA officers who were following orders.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who is considering a challenge to Clinton from the left, has called for a special prosecutor.

Bill Clinton didn’t address that issue but said that the country should learn more about the CIA interrogation program.

“What I hope will happen is that we will keep pushing on this, find out exactly what happened, give anybody who disagrees the chance to have their say, and then do what we should always do in cases like this — say what our policy is going to be on this and stick with it and have it consistent with international law,” he said. 

The former president said it is better to have the discussion of the CIA tactics in the open. 

“Instead of, you know, putting these problems under the rug and hiding them, it’s better to come out and say, ‘OK, this is what happened. Now let’s talk about how we can fix it, how we can make it better,’ ” he added. 

Asked if President Bush betrayed American values, Clinton said, “No, well what they said, the report says that he didn’t know about a lot of this stuff.”

The report says Bush did not know details of the CIA’s interrogation practices until 2006, although the former president said in his memoir, Decision Points, that he was not kept in the dark. 

Touching on the Iraq War, Clinton said, “That’s been litigated, and you either agree with it or you don’t. I think we’re still paying for it today.”

Hillary Clinton’s initial support for the Iraq War was a major point of contention in her 2008 primary loss to Barack Obama.