[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 149 (Tuesday, December 9, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6425-S6426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE STUDY OF THE CIA'S DETENTION 
                       AND INTERROGATION PROGRAM

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, today is a historic day, as 
Senator Wyden made clear, Senator Feinstein, Senator Rockefeller, and 
many other Senators to follow.
  Before I talk about my involvement in the efforts that were put forth 
to reach this day, I want to say to Senator Wyden, my good friend, you 
honor me with those comments. I want to acknowledge that when you are 
in a fight, it matters whom you are in the fight with. It has been my 
privilege and honor to fight on the side of transparency, on the side 
of protecting the Bill of Rights, and this has been a righteous cause. 
We are going to continue to work to find the right balance between 
privacy and security. As Ben Franklin famously implied, we can have 
both, but we don't end up with both if we set aside the Bill of Rights 
and those fundamental principles that are enshrined into the Bill of 
Rights. It has been my privilege to fight alongside you, and I wish you 
all the best. Yes, we westerners will stay in touch.
  Turning back to the matter at hand, today, almost 6 years after the 
Senate Intelligence Committee voted to conduct a study of the CIA's 
detention and interrogation program and nearly 2 years after approving 
the report, the American people will finally know the truth about a 
very dark chapter in our Nation's history.
  I had two goals at the beginning of this long process, and I still 
hold those two goals today. First, I have been committed to correcting 
the public record on the CIA's multiple misrepresentations to the 
American people, to other agencies, the executive branch, the White 
House, and to Congress.
  Second, my goal has been to ensure that the truth comes out about the 
terrible acts committed in the name of the American people. Why? 
Because I want this to be our way of going forward, that neither the 
CIA nor any future administration repeats the grievous mistakes this 
important oversight work reveals.
  This has been a careful and very deliberative process. We have 
compiled, drafted, redacted, and now released this report. It has been 
much harder than it needed to be. Senator Wyden and many others pointed 
it out.
  It brings no joy to discuss the CIA's brutal and appalling use of 
torture or the unprecedented actions that some in the intelligence 
community and the administration have taken in order to cover up the 
truth. By releasing the Intelligence Committee's landmark report, we 
affirm that we are a nation that does not hide from its past but learns 
from it. An honest examination of our shortcomings is not a sign of 
weakness but of the strength of our great Republic.
  We have made significant progress since the CIA first delivered its 
heavily--underline ``heavily''--redacted version of the executive 
summary to the committee in August. The report we released today cuts 
through the fog the CIA's redactions created and will give the American 
people a candid, brutal, and coherent account of the CIA's torture 
program.
  As the chairman said earlier today, even when public tensions were 
high, our committee continued to work behind the scenes to successfully 
whittle down 400 instances of unnecessary redactions to just a few. We 
didn't make all the progress we wanted, and the redaction process was 
filled with unwarranted and completely unnecessary obstacles, but all 
told, after reviewing the final version, I believe our landmark report 
accomplishes the goals I laid out at the outset and tells the story 
that needs to be told. It also represents a significant and essential 
step toward restoring faith in the crucial role of Congress to conduct 
oversight of the intelligence community. Congressional oversight is 
important to all of government's activities, but it

[[Page S6426]]

is especially important to those parts of government that operate in 
secret, as the Church committee discovered decades ago.
  The challenges the Church committee confronted four decades ago 
persists today--namely, how to ensure that those government actions 
which are necessarily conducted in secret are nonetheless conducted 
within the confines of the law.
  The release of this executive summary is testament to the power of 
effective oversight and the determination of Chairman Feinstein and 
members of the committee to doggedly beat back obstacle after obstacle 
in order to reveal the truth to the American people. I have much more 
to say about these obstacles and about the critical importance of 
reforming an agency that refuses to even acknowledge what it has done. 
I will deliver those remarks soon. For now, I wish to congratulate the 
chairman and her staff on this very important achievement.
  The document we are finally releasing today is the definitive history 
of what happened in the CIA's detention and interrogation program. We 
have always been a forward-looking nation, but to be so, we must be 
mindful of our own history. That is what this study is all about. That 
is why I have no doubt that we will emerge from this dark episode with 
our democracy strengthened and our future made even brighter.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. I see the distinguished senior Senator from Texas on the 
floor seeking recognition. I have been told to come here at 3:30 p.m., 
but obviously I yield to my friend from Texas and ask unanimous consent 
that when he completes his remarks I be recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Texas.
  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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