“The Senate Intelligence Committee today voted to send a one-sided, partisan report to the CIA and White House for declassification despite warnings from the State Department and our allies indicating that declassification of this report could endanger the lives of American diplomats and citizens overseas and jeopardize U.S. relations with other countries. Therefore, we could not support declassification of this product at this time. Unfortunately, the study has pitted the Senate Intelligence Committee against the CIA and distracted us from focusing on the many threats facing our national security. Unlike previous bipartisan reports to come out of the intelligence committee – including the recent study investigating the terrorists attacks in Benghazi, which received broad bipartisan support – this partisan effort deserves to be discredited. No member of the Senate condones torture, and the CIA’s execution of its former interrogation and detention program has harmed the agency and the reputation of the United States. But in the end, this report, which took six years and $40 million to produce, will not put to rest the debate over the CIA’s controversial former detention and interrogation program. The one saving grace about the eventual declassification of this report is that the minority views and the CIA position will also be declassified.”
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