Yes, the CIA is probably lying about torture

Two weeks have passed since Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) gave her stunning speech on the floor of the Senate accusing the CIA of breaking the law, violating the Constitution, and intimidating her staffers. The outburst was part of a long-simmering struggle over a Senate Intelligence Committee report about the so-called interrogation techniques that the CIA used on suspected terrorists during the Bush years — and one of the strongest indications yet that the CIA will do its damnedest to cover up evidence of what was clearly torture.

I've previously made the point that the CIA cannot possibly be assumed to be a disinterested party on this issue. Because torture is a crime under U.S. law, it is manifestly in the spy organization's self-interest to prevent the release of the torture report, lest it expose CIA officers to prosecution. On that basis alone, the CIA cannot be trusted in the slightest.

But there are other, more concrete reasons to believe the CIA's credibility is shot: Third-party reports that looked closely at public-record information and concluded that the CIA had misled investigators in a big way.

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Katherine Hawkins and Alka Pradhan, writing at Al Jazeera, note that they had found "major inaccuracies in the information that the CIA provided the Department of Justice about the torture program." The CIA told the DOJ that the intelligence it acquired through its "enhanced" interrogation techniques helped prevent another 9/11-style attack, but that's not quite true, according to Hawkins and Pradhan:

There we have it, additional confirmation that the most cynical possible interpretation of the CIA's actions is probably the correct one. Namely, that the torture program was an egregious and completely pointless violation of international law, and that the CIA has been trying to cover up that humiliating and dangerous truth with deceit and intimidation.

Of course, we can't be 100 percent sure about this. Releasing the Intelligence Committee report would clear up these uncertainties at a stroke, and we would have no need to speculate. Which is why every day the CIA continues to fight against its release makes the cynical interpretation more likely.

As Duncan Black has said, "Congress sucks, but they're the democracy part of our democracy." And nothing less than that is at stake as the CIA continues to intimidate and defy the Senate. If lawmakers want to hold up their end of the bargain, they can release the report, now.