PD Editorial: Release the CIA torture report

President Barack Obama has about six weeks left in the White House. Although the president-elect appears to be getting most of the attention these days, Obama will no doubt want to add to his list of accomplishments before he leaves office. One of those moves should be the release of the Senate’s report on CIA torture.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is leading the call for its release. That’s not surprising given that she chaired the intelligence panel that produced the 6,700-page report and has long criticized federal secrecy surrounding torture.

The public only got to see an executive summary of the torture report in 2014. Feinstein and other advocates for transparency and accountability, such as Oregon’s Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, say that the full report contains damning evidence of a reprehensible chapter in American history. They claim that the torture report’s findings undermine not only the usefulness of torture but also its legality.

The need for an honest public assessment of what America did and how effective it was has never been greater as President-elect Donald Trump has indicated that he has no qualms about torture. “Would I approve waterboarding? You bet your ass I’d approve it. You bet your ass - in a heartbeat,” he said on the campaign trail.

If the torture report is to see the light of day, it must be by Obama’s hand. Many Republicans have fought the release. Indeed, some congressional GOP leaders sought to have all copies returned to the Senate where they would be destroyed, swept under the rug of history.

The torture occurred with sanction from Republican President George W. Bush and his administration. Damning the practice undermines Bush’s legacy and raises questions about why no one was prosecuted or punished.

Meanwhile, Kansas Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo, Trump’s nominee for CIA director, is not likely to differ with his new boss on the merits of torture. When the executive summary came out, Pompeo claimed its release would “put American lives at risk.”

However, there was no evidence of harm being done from the release of the executive summary. That’s in part because releasing important government documents to the public is not all-or-nothing. Laws covering transparency of public records allow for reasonable redaction of information, including information that would harm national security. When the executive summary came out, some portions were blacked out. The same could be done if Obama chose to release the full report.

A careful review of 6,700 pages and 32,000 footnotes is a tall order given that there is just a month and a half left in the president’s term. But Obama can at least set things in motion for a release by declaring the report a federal record. Agencies would then have an opportunity for review and redaction before releasing the report under the Freedom of Information Act.

The last time America chose torture, it was without the public’s knowledge. The CIA then destroyed records and tried to keep the truth secret.

This time, before a new president takes us back down that dark road, as he has indicated he would, the people deserve a chance for an informed debate. The release of this full report would at least give us that.