SSCI Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, torture is wrong, it is un-American, and it doesn't work. Recognizing these important realities, the President signed an Executive order in January of 2009 that limited interrogations by any American personnel to the guidelines that are in the Army Field Manual, and he reinforced U.S. commitment to the Geneva Conventions. This closed the book on the Bush administration's interrogation program. But make no mistake--these weren't enhanced interrogations. This was torture. I would challenge anyone to read this report and not be truly disturbed by some of these techniques.

Releasing the Intelligence Committee's study of the CIA's detention and interrogation program to the American people today will finally provide a thorough accounting of what happened and how it happened. In addition, like my colleague and friend from Maine who spoke before me, I hope this process helps to ensure that it never ever happens again.

This was a grave chapter in our history, and the actions taken under this program cost our Nation global credibility, and--let's be blunt--they put American lives at risk. Some have suggested that releasing this report could put American lives at risk. But let's be clear. It has been the use of torture that has unnecessarily put Americans in harm's way.

There is no question that there will never be a good time to release this study. We all know that for months, terrorists in the extremist group ISIS have been kidnapping and barbarically killing innocent Americans because of what we as a nation stand for. The response to their threats and terrorism should not be for us to change our American values; it should be to stand firm in our values and work with our allies to root out extremism and terrorism in all its forms.

The release of this study will finally let us face what was done in the name of the American people and allow for future generations to use these findings to learn from the mistakes made by the architects of this program. This is an objective, fact-based study. It is a fair study. And it is the only comprehensive study conducted of this program and the CIA's treatment of its detainees in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Today marks an enormous, albeit painful, step into our future.

It is important to know that these torture methods were the brainchild of a few CIA officials and their contractors. When I joined the Intelligence Committee two years ago, I began to read the classified report and was surprised to learn this. Frankly, it was not consistent with all of my assumptions. It wasn't what my prejudices told me to expect. But that is exactly why a fact-based study is so important.

Furthermore, it is important to know that at every turn, CIA leadership avoided congressional oversight of these activities and, even worse, misled Congress. That leadership deliberately kept the vast majority of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees in the dark on the interrogation techniques until the day the President revealed the detention and interrogation program to the rest of the world in 2006--4 years after it began.

Even then, misrepresentations to the committee about the effectiveness of this program continued, in large part because the CIA had never performed any comprehensive review of the effectiveness of the interrogation techniques or the actions of its officers. Myths of the effectiveness of torture have been repeated, perpetuating the fable that this was a necessary program that somehow saved lives.

The committee examined the CIA's claims of plots thwarted and detainees captured as a result of intelligence gained through torture. In each and every case, the committee found that the intelligence was already available from other sources or provided by the detainees themselves before they were tortured.

However, we need to stop treating the issue of torture as one worthy of debate over its practical merits. This is about torture being immoral, being un-American. Reducing a human being to a state of despair through systematic subjugation, pain, and humiliation is unquestionably immoral. It should never happen again with the blessing of the Government of the United States of America.

As my colleague who spoke before me--Senator King of Maine--said so well in an interview this morning, ``This is not America. This is not who we are.'' I think that sums up how I view the revelations in that report.

The information in the study released today to the public will finally pull back the curtain on the terrible judgment that went into creating and implementing this interrogation program.

The decision to use these techniques and the defense of the program were the work of a relatively small number of people at the CIA. This study is in no way a condemnation of the thousands of patriotic men and women at this great Agency who work tirelessly every day to protect and defend our Nation from very real and imminent threats using lawful measures; using effective measures. In fact, the insistence that so many intelligence successes were the result of enhanced interrogations negates and marginalizes the effective work done by thousands of other CIA officers not involved in these activities.

What this study does is show that multiple levels of government were misled about the effectiveness of these techniques. If secretive government agencies want to operate in a democracy, there must be trust and transparency with those who are tasked with the oversight of those agencies.

As the committee carries out future oversight, we will benefit from the lessons in this study. I hope we never again let the challenges of difficult times be used as an excuse to frustrate and defer oversight the way it was in the early years described in this report.

Although President Obama ended the program by signing that Executive order in 2009, any future President could reverse it. It is worth remembering that years before this detention and interrogation program even began, the CIA had sworn off the harsh interrogations of its past. But in the wake of the terrorist attacks against the United States, it repeated those mistakes by once again engaging in brutal interrogations that undermined our Nation's credibility on the issue of human rights, produced information of dubious value, and wasted millions and millions of taxpayer dollars.

The public interest in this issue too often has centered on the personalities involved and the political battle waged in the release of this study, but those stories are reductive, and I hope they will soon be forgotten.

Because the story of what happened in this detention and interrogation program--and how it happened--is too important, and it needs to be fully understood so that future generations will not make the same mistakes that our country made out of fear.

When America engages in these acts, with authorization from the highest levels of government, we invite others to treat our citizens and our soldiers the same way. This study should serve as a warning to those who would make similar choices in the future or argue about the efficacy of these techniques. Let us learn from the mistakes of the past, and let us never repeat these mistakes again.

Before I close, I wish to say how important it is to acknowledge that the Intelligence Committee's study of the CIA's detention and interrogation program represents many, many years of hard work by Members and staff who faced incredible obstacles in completing their work. The fact that this study is finished is a testament to their dedication, and it is a testament to the dedication and focus of Chairman Rockefeller and Chairman Feinstein in deciding that oversight is our job, regardless of how long it takes.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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