Ex-CIA directors blast torture report as 'flat-out wrong'
A group of six former CIA directors calls the Senate Intelligence Committee's report released Tuesday nothing more than a politicized, "cherry picked" argument against the program's effectiveness. And such blatant partisanship, they claim, could negatively affect the careers of CIA officials, relationships to the foreign intelligence partners, and the fight against terrorism.
The group lists three main points the report gets wrong in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday:
"In no way would we claim that we did everything perfectly; far from it in the emergency and often chaotic circumstances we confronted in the immediate aftermath of 9/11," the group writes.
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It wasn't just their mindset but also Congress' that was different 13 years ago, they say. When it came to learning what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed knew about additional plots, they write, one senator "forcefully" asked, "Do you have all the authorities you need to do what you need to do?"
Go to The Wall Street Journal to read the full response.
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Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.
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