They’ve been talking about releasing a summary of the CIA torture report today, so of course now the Republicans (whose Bush administration was responsible for the torture) start using it for political purposes. It’s as if our country is in the throes of some awful virus that just keep mutating and getting stronger:
WASHINGTON — Foreign governments and U.S. intelligence agencies are predicting that the release of a Senate report examining the use of torture by the CIA will cause “violence and deaths” abroad, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday.
Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, is regularly briefed on intelligence assessments. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that U.S. intelligence agencies and foreign governments have said privately that the release of the report on CIA interrogations a decade ago will be used by extremists to incite violence that is likely to cost lives. The 480-page report, a summary of a still-classified 6,000 page study, is expected to be made public next week.
A U.S. intelligence official, who was not authorized to be quoted discussing classified intelligence assessments, said Congress had been warned “of the heightened potential that the release could stimulate a violent response.”
On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry urged the senator in charge of the report to consider the timing of the release, though Obama administration officials say they still support making it public. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has not responded to reports of the Kerry call, though she told the Los Angeles Times in a story published Sunday that “We have to get this report out.”
Why was Chuck Hagel fired? Two weeks after his firing the CIA torture report is being released. At least the Readers Digest version. Two weeks after his firing 6 more Gitmo detainees are released with the promise of more to come by January 1st. Two weeks after his firing John Kerry is told to shut up and quit screwing with Dianne Feinstein about the release of the CIA torture report. Two weeks after his firing the American public is finally told that there has been a screw up and 10,800 US combat troops will fight on in Afghanistan for at least one more year. Chuck Hagel was working for the neo-con warmongers like McCain and not for Obama and the American people. That’s why he was fired.