DENVER – U.S. Sen. Mark Udall took to the Senate floor Wednesday to blast President Barack Obama for delaying the release of information pertaining to U.S. torture tactics.
Udall’s remarks, lasting nearly an hour, came one day after the public release of a summary on CIA torture tactics, which revealed brutal but ineffective results.
The 500-page redacted summary highlights a 6,700-page still-classified report conducted by the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which Udall is a member.
On Tuesday, Udall appeared satisfied with the release of the report. But on Wednesday, he seemed hungry again, pushing for even greater transparency. The senator – who lost his re-election bid in November – suggested the six-year process did not have to take so long.
“The process of compiling, drafting, redacting and now releasing this report has been much harder than it needed to be,” Udall said.
He went on to place direct blame on the shoulders of his fellow Democrat, Obama.
“Why has it been so hard for this document to finally see the light of day? Why have we had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way? The answer is simple: Because the study says things that former and current CIA and other government officials don’t want the American public to know,” Udall said. “And for a while, I worried that this administration would succeed in keeping this study entirely under wraps.
“And for President Obama, that means taking real action to live up to the pledges he made early in his presidency,” Udall said.
He then went on to point to the Panetta Review, an internal CIA examination into similar torture techniques revealed in the summary released Tuesday. The review is named for former CIA Director Leon Panetta.
Udall and his colleagues have been given a portion of the review, but its full contents have never been made public. He placed large blame on CIA Director John Brennan, suggesting that he and the administration were “openly hostile toward and dismissive of” the Senate committee’s oversight.
“I believe its flippant and dismissive tone represents the CIA’s approach to oversight – and the White House’s willingness to let the CIA do whatever it likes – even if its efforts are aimed at actively undermining the president’s stated policies,” Udall said.
Of the Panetta Review, he said it “found that the CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Congress, the president and the public on the efficacy of its coercive techniques.
“CIA personnel tortured detainees to confirm they didn’t have intelligence, not because they thought they did,” Udall said.
On Tuesday, Brennan defended his agency, saying, “Our review indicates that interrogations of detainees on whom (enhanced interrogation) were used did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives.”
In a statement Tuesday, Obama appeared supportive of the release of the executive summary, despite Udall’s claims that the president did not act to encourage its release.
“As commander in chief, I have no greater responsibility than the safety and security of the American people,” Obama said. “We will therefore continue to be relentless in our fight against al-Qaida, its affiliates and other violent extremists. We will rely on all elements of our national power, including the power and example of our founding ideals. That is why I have consistently supported the declassification of Tuesday’s report.”
But Udall was defiant, set on exposing the administration’s alleged failure to act.
“Actions speak louder than words,” he said. “This administration, like so many before it, has released information only when forced to – by a leak, by a court decision, or by an oversight committee.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com
