Georgia Senators on CIA interrogation report: politically motivated and false

Georgia Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both Republicans, responded to a critical report on CIA interrogation practices released by the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday. Both senators were against the release of the sensitive information and believe the report will put Americans serving overseas in danger.

Senate Democrats were behind the push to release the information and President Barack Obama supported that decision. American troops abroad were put on high alert in anticipation of a possible backlash resulting from the information in the report.

Chambliss, who is the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), released a joint statement with the Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about the findings included in the report:

”As we have both stated before, we are opposed to this study and believe it will present serious consequences for U.S. national security.  Regardless of what one’s opinions may be on these issues, the study by Senate Democrats is an ideologically motivated and distorted recounting of historical events.  The fact that the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation program developed significant intelligence that helped us identify and capture important al-Qa’ida terrorists, disrupt their ongoing plotting, and take down Usama Bin Ladin is incontrovertible. Claims included in this report that assert the contrary are simply wrong.

The 500-page declassified version of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program summary claims that the agency didn’t disclose to Congress or the White House how ”brutal were the interrogation techniques. The report also alleges that the harsh interrogation methods didn’t produce desired results. The CIA officials maintain that the information gathered during interrogations helped capture several terrorist leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

”Oversight of the federal govement, including the intelligence community, is an important and necessary responsibility of Congress, said Isakson in his statement. ”However, this report presents a politically motivated and one-sided account of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogations program—a program that, despite what this report alleges, helped develop intelligence that led to action against threats to our national security. I believe this report unfairly impugns U.S. intelligence professionals and endangers Americans fighting terror as well as those being held captive by our enemies.

The interrogation methods described in the report were sleep deprivation for as long as 180 hours, shoveling detainees against walls, threatening with physical violence and death, and three detainees underwent waterboarding. The report says that the interrogation methods forced the detainees to provide false information while the CIA top officials claim the methods saved ”thousands of American lives.