During CIA Director John Brennan’s response to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the torture techniques the CIA used on detainees after 9/11, staffers for committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) offered a live rebuttal.
Brennan acknowledged that the CIA had its shortcomings following 9/11, but Feinstein objected to some of his defenses.
Brennan said that it is “unknown and unknowable” whether the interrogation tactics used by the CIA helped gather useful intelligence, which Feinstein’s office rebutted using the hashtag #ReadTheReport.
CIA says “unknowable” if we could have gotten the intel other ways. Study shows it IS knowable: CIA had info before torture. #ReadTheReport
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) December 11, 2014
Coercive interrogation techniques don’t work. Traditional intelligence collection, interrogation and law enforcement do. #ReadTheReport
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) December 11, 2014
Brennan also defended the CIA’s methods by noting that the Bush administration “authorized the program six days after 9/11, and it was our job to carry it out.”
Covert authority did not include authorization to use coercive interrogation techniques. #ReadTheReport
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) December 11, 2014
EIT authority based on vital, otherwise unavailable intel. Not “useful information.” #ReadTheReport
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) December 11, 2014
H/T Jeff Zeleny