MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR JACK REED (D-RI)

SUBJECTS: TORTURE TACTICS, IRAQ

INTERVIEWER: NORAH O'DONNELL

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MS. O'DONNELL: There is a big news because in a shift today, President Obama left the door open to prosecuting Bush administration officials who designed a legal authority for those torture tactics. The president said today, "The U.S. lost our moral bearings." He also said he could support a blue ribbon panel to investigate these Bush administration excesses.

PRESIDENT OBAMA (From video): I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations.

MS. O'DONNELL: Meanwhile, former Vice President Dick Cheney is once again unloading on President Obama, telling Fox News that he asked the CIA to declassify memos that show that these torture tactics actually work, but this just in, the CIA is telling NBC News that they never received such a request, in fact, we are told, according to Andrea Mitchell who spoke with people inside the Agency that, quote, "The Agency has received no such request from the former vice president." This just in, remember that Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox News last night, he said, quote, "I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people can have a chance to see what we have obtained."

So Cheney saying he's asked the CIA to declassify those memos. The CIA is telling NBC News, they've not received such a request.

There's a lot of news today, so let's bring in Senator Jack Reed, Democrat from Rhode Island, also a member of the Armed Services Committee. He just traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan during the congressional recess.

Senator, good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

SEN. REED: Thank you, Norah.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator, we heard from President Obama today who suggested he is open to prosecuting these Bush administration officials, and that he may be open to some sort of blue ribbon commission.

Do you think there should be a truth commission to investigate how these torture methods were created so that it doesn't happen again?

SEN. REED: Well, I think in terms of those people who authored these legal opinions and orchestrated this activity, we should consider pressing forward with a commission to review what they did, and if there is legal culpability, pursue a legal address.

I think with respect to those agents in the field who relied upon these opinions as legally sufficient, I think the president has already made it clear he's not going to purse that activity. But for the architects of this, the planners of this use of enhanced interrogation techniques, I think they should be subject to an investigation, certainly.

MS. O'DONNELL: Well, it's very interesting to hear you say that. I also want to play for you what Vice President Dick Cheney said just last night, as you know, a number of Republicans criticizing Obama. They said that he breached national security, that he's endangering American interests by releasing these memos.

Hear what Cheney says about that.

MR. CHENEY (From video.): One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort, and there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator, he says, clearly, the former vice president, the success of the effort. Do you believe the vice president?

SEN. REED: I think the vice president is making an argument that is difficult for me to comprehend. He's trying to defend what many people would argue is torture, and he's trying to defend it even though it's illegal by saying, we got some results and he's also suggesting that we release or the administration release documents that may, in fact, be much more revealing of our sources and methods than a legal memorandum.

So I don't think it's a very compelling justification. I think the reality is that the Bush administration and the vice president was a primary mover, authorized activities which look more and more like torture, which violate our law and international law.

MS. O'DONNELL: Well, don't you think it's funny that there's so many Republicans saying, we should never have released any of these memos, never declassify them and then the former vice president saying, release more of them that show that these torture tactics actually work?

SEN. REED: I think that is not only ironic, but it underscores, I think, the desperate nature of their attempt to try to shovel all of this under the rug if you will, because, in fact, I would suspect -- at least I would raise a question of those memorandums from agents and interrogators might be more revealing of sources and methods than a legal opinion by a lawyer in the White House.

So I think they're just desperate to obscure the situation as much as possible and argue against what is increasingly looking like a high level authorization of enhanced technique that may well have been torture.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator, finally, I know you just returned from a fact-finding mission to Iraq and Afghanistan. I listened to your press conference earlier today. You said a lot of the challenges are now political in nature, not military in nature.

So given that, why do we still have more than 130,000 of our U.S. troops in Iraq?

SEN. REED: Well, we're on the downward path. We spoke with General Odierno. He's very confident that he can reduce those forces over the next several months to, hopefully, approximately 50,000 and those 50,000 will be concentrating on training Iraqis, counterterrorism, going after remnants of these Sunni and Shi'a terrorist cells, and then also protecting the forces that are in place.

So this is quite a bit different than the significant number of troops that were in Iraq previously and currently are present. We're going down.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator Jack Reed, you're great to join us. Thanks so much.

SEN. REED: Thank you, Norah.

END.

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