Bill Press: Release CIA report now

It’s the heavyweight bout of the century. In this corner: Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein. In the other corner: President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, CIA Director John Brennan and the entire intelligence community. 

Feinstein might be outnumbered, but in this contest, I’d still bet on her. And so should all Americans who believe in holding our government accountable.

{mosads}At issue is release of a 480-page summary of the final 6,200-page report of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the CIA’s use of torture, including waterboarding, at secret prisons around the world following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That investigation, covering millions of pages of internal CIA documents, took six years, during which time, committee staffers themselves were spied on by the CIA. But, since completing its report, the committee has met nothing but resistance from the Obama administration.

First came debate over who should redact the report before its public release. The committee wanted the White House counsel’s office to do it, but the administration insisted on giving the job to the CIA itself — literally putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Now both sides are locked in a debate over the timing of the report’s release — with the White House, too cute by half, trying to have it both ways.

Obama, Brennan and Kerry, in a personal phone call to Feinstein Friday, all insist they want the report summary made public. Just not now. But Feinstein argues that delaying release of the report any longer will put it in the hands of the incoming Republican-controlled Senate — in which case, it might never see the light of day. 

Meanwhile, intelligence hard-liners are resorting to Dick Cheney-like scare tactics. Rogers, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, warns that making the report on interrogation techniques public will cause “violence and deaths” abroad. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden says the report could “be used by our enemies to motivate people to attack Americans in American facilities overseas.”

Nonsense. 

Official word that the CIA engaged in torture after 9/11 will surprise no one. Former President George W. Bush admitted he gave the orders. Cheney brags about it. The use of waterboarding has already been widely disclosed in congressional hearings, in several trials and in countless books and magazine articles. Obama has even acknowledged, “We tortured some folks.” The only thing new about this report is not that the CIA engaged in torture, but that — for the first time — our government will be officially acknowledging it. 

And that’s important for a couple of reasons. One, because the American people have a right to know what their government is up to. And two, as Feinstein has said, harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA undermine “societal and constitutional values that we are very proud of. Anybody who reads this is going to never let this happen again.”

There’s no need to wait for White House approval. The Senate Intelligence Committee should release its report immediately. 

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of The Obama Hate Machine.