McCain: CIA interrogation methods ‘stained our national honor’
Dec 9, 2014, 7:16 PM | Updated: 7:17 pm
Sen. John McCain spoke Tuesday about the report released by the Senate intelligence committee about the CIA’s practices of forceful interrogation.
McCain is no stranger to brutal war tactics, as he was once tortured by the North Vietnamese when he was captured as a prisoner-of-war.
McCain’s full statement included discussion of how “the entire world already knows that we water-boarded prisoners,” and the release of this information was not what shocked many.
Even if there are terrorist reactions to this report, McCain said, “they hardly need an excuse for that.”
What all Americans should take away from this report is how the CIA misled the White House, Congress and the public of the effectiveness of these interrogation methods.
“I suspect the objection of those same [CIA] officials to the release of this report is really focused on that disclosure – torture’s ineffectiveness – because we gave up much in the expectation that torture would make us safer. Too much,” McCain said.
These officials therefore “stained our national honor,” but the American people are “entitled” to the truth, McCain said. Even if it is a “hard pill to swallow.”
