Sen. Rockefeller Reacts to News Report on White House Torture MemosSen. Jay Rockefeller, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, spoke out in reaction to the news this morning that the White House endorsed controversial CIA interrogation techniques in memos requested by then CIA director, George Tenet.
“The Senate Intelligence Committee is in the midst of an investigation of the CIA’s interrogation program, including the Department of Justice’s determination that the use of waterboarding on prisoners is lawful,” Rockefeller said in a statement.
“If White House documents exist that set the policy for the use of coercive techniques such as waterboarding, those documents have been kept from the Committee. That is unacceptable, and represents the latest example of the Bush Administration withholding critical information from Congress and the American people in an attempt to limit our oversight of sensitive intelligence collection activities.”
