Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. I thank my friend from Vermont. All of this got pushed back a little bit with the laudatory speeches for our retiring colleague from Nebraska. We are backed up a little bit, but I won't be long.

I have to say that I came to the floor when the Senators from Oregon and Colorado were talking about Senator Feinstein's decision to release this report. I get it that different people see the same subject matter sometimes through a different lens, but I can't think of any more reckless or irresponsible thing to do to our brave men and women who fight in our military, who have fought our wars for the last 13 years, and the intelligence community that has worked while risking their lives to keep us safe.

We all remember what happened on 9/11/2001, but apparently with time our memories have faded. What we do know for a fact is we would not have avoided another attack on our own soil if it were not for the dedication and the patriotism of men and women in our intelligence community who were operating under color of law. In other words, this isn't just something they decided to cook up; this was something that was vetted at the highest levels of the Justice Department and the Department of Defense.

We had hearing upon hearing on these various enhanced interrogation techniques. There were disagreements, but we do know they were effective in gleaning intelligence that helped keep Americans safer. That is not just me saying that. Ask Leon Panetta, the immediate past Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Secretary of the Department of Defense--a proud Democrat but also a patriot in his own right. Ask John Brennan, President Obama's choice to be the current CIA Director. He said virtually the same thing.

So much of this should have proven to be unnecessary after two separate U.S. attorneys conducted criminal investigations. There was one done earlier and then one done later when Attorney General Eric Holder reopened the investigation. These men and women who risk their lives to do what their government asks them to do to keep us safe were subjected to at least two Justice Department investigations, and obviously no decision to proceed with any kind of criminal charges was decided upon.

I think you have to wonder about the timing of this in a lameduck session where we have basically three items of business to do before we break for the Christmas holidays and a new Congress. It is clear that this report was pushed out in an attempt to make a political statement, but I have to tell you that I think it is a reckless act, and it is a disservice not only to the men and women who risked their lives but also to the American people who should expect more of us.

This was not a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report. Once Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee figured out what was happening, they simply disassociated themselves from it. This is purely a partisan report. There are absolutely no recommendations made for any reforms in this report. It was simply done to embarrass and to hold up our brave men and women who serve our country and the intelligence community to ridicule, and it is a shame.

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