Following the controversial release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s use of torture tactics to gather information during the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Congressman Alan Lowenthal released a statement calling the CIA’s actions “damaging.”
“Our nation was founded on the concepts of freedom, democracy, and personal rights. For a large portion of our history, we have taken actions based on the moral high ground of the sanctity of individual freedoms,” Lowenthal said. “Unfortunately, the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report indicates that the CIA tortured detainees and routinely misled the White House and Congress about the use of torture with these detainees.”
Lowenthal recommended that Congress act to ensure actions like this are not performed again.
“It will require a great deal of national reflection and action to begin to undo the damage,” he said. “In the end, the Senate report must serve to remind us how easily good intentions in the name of patriotism and national defense can go awry. This report must also serve as a warning that we can never let this happen again. I believe that Congress must now act to ensure that it cannot and will not.”