This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Again, with all due respect, it seems equally disingenuous to appeal to this President to declassify and release the earlier review ordered by former CIA Director Leon Panetta, the conclusions of which directly refute several of Brennan's claims -- much less release the full 6,800-page study of which we are permitted only a heavily redacted "executive summary."
You even include Panetta's own observation that President Obama and Brennan both were unhappy with Panetta's initial agreement with the committee to allow staff access to operational cables and other sensitive documents about the torture program.
So where is the real leadership going to come from? Clearly, not from the White House. Russian President Putin is going to give Crimea to NATO before Obama does any of the things you suggested. And you know it.
So where could the initiative come from in these final days before the Senate changes hands? Frankly, Senator Udall, we had been counting on you rising to the challenge before this unique opportunity is lost, probably forever.
Where We Are Coming From
We are, frankly, at a loss to explain your hesitancy -- your lack of follow-through toward your stated goal "to ensure the full truth comes out ... so that neither the CIA nor any future administration repeats the grievous mistake [of torture]."
If you summon the courage to discharge what you no doubt realize is your duty, there is no way you will end up in jail. Indeed, this is precisely the kind of situation the Founders had in mind when they wrote the "Speech or Debate" clause into Article 1 of the Constitution.
Whatever it is that you fear, you might keep in mind that several of us -- who lack the immunity you enjoy -- have paid and continue to pay a heavy price for exposing lies, injustice, and abuses like torture. One of us -- the first to reveal that those grisly kinds of torture (aka "enhanced interrogation techniques") were approved at the highest level of government -- is in prison serving a 30-month sentence. A number of us have seen the inside of prisons for doing the right thing; and all of us know what it feels like to be shunned by former colleagues.
Also important, despite our many years of service as senior intelligence officers and our solid record for accuracy, we are effectively banned from the so-called "mainstream media," which continues to prefer the role of security-state accomplice in disparaging, for example, the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee Study. (Never mind that the study is based on indisputably original CIA cables and other documents.) In contrast, you are not banned from the media -- yet. You have a few more days; you need to use them.
In your "Additional Views" on the Senate committee Study released on Dec. 9, you applaud Sen. Dianne Feinstein "for seeing this project to completion." But wait. You are surely aware (1) that the project remains far from complete; and (2) that if you or one of your Senate colleagues do not move tout suite to release the full Study together with the earlier review commissioned by Panetta, the "project" will not be brought to "completion" any time soon -- unless a courageous whistleblower runs great risk and does what you can do with impunity.
Moreover, releasing the report, as you have the authority to do under the Constitution, would publicly demonstrate that at least one legal method of whistleblowing does exist. So when such truly illegal actions occur, even at the most senior levels, there is a way of righting wrongs.
You are correct to call the committee Study "one of the most significant examples of oversight in the history of the U.S. Senate." We imagine that the strong support you and Sen. Ron Wyden gave Sen. Feinstein helped make it so. And we join you both in applauding Sen. Feinstein's tenacity in getting the Study's 500-page executive summary released. John Brennan used every conceivable ruse to slow-roll and eviscerate the summary, but Sen. Feinstein faced him down. She achieved all she could, given the circumstances. But the project remains far from "completion."
In your "Additional Views" you note that, as a new member of the intelligence committee four years ago, you were "deeply disturbed to learn specifics about the flaws in the [torture] program, the misrepresentations, the brutality." You add that you wrote the President letters about this in May, June, and July of this year. Surely the lack of response told you something. Please -- not another letter to Obama. You need to go beyond letters.
Your Turn
Now it's your turn, Senator Udall. Put Constitution and conscience into play, together with the immunity you enjoy. You can -- and, in our view, your oath to the Constitution dictates that you must -- rise to the occasion and find a way to release the entire 6,800-page Study, including CIA's comments (but not redacted to a fare-thee-well). You need to put this at the very top of your job jar -- now, before it is too late.
The American people are owed the truth. As you have noted more than once, they are not likely to get it from Brennan -- or the President for that matter. Nor will it come from the mainstream media with their customary "on-the-one-hand-and-then-on-the-other" approach to journalism. Polling data on the widespread acceptance of using torture "to keep us safe" is a direct result of that kind of coverage -- as well as of the artful crafting of words and phrases in the questions asked in those surveys.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
3
1
