The following commentary by IWP alumnus Gene Poteat appeared in The Washington Times.
The only unconscionable torture in Senator Diane Feinstein’s Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee Report is to the public forced to hear of this shameless betrayal of those who, following explicit orders from these same members of Congress, bravely did their bidding and served the country post-9/11 after the death of more than 3,000 Americans.
More than a decade later the overthrown Democratic Congress has decided to give parting shots at those it deems responsible for being tossed out of office. The Senate CIA Torture Report was picked up worldwide – unblinkingly swallowed whole – and handed to a gullible public who sees the spectacle as Pin the Blame on Another Government Scapegoat…the latest episode of the program they saw last year when it was the National Security Agency (NSA) which Congress and the White House betrayed and pilloried.
The truth – that enhanced interrogations saved lives, frightened other terrorists to not act, uncovered plots and schemes, and showed any al Qaeda wannabees that joining in would have serious personal consequences – is completely missing. Instead, it is rife with cherry-picked memos and opinions, hype, political spin, ignorance of the realities of war, devoid of a single interview with any of the CIA officers who did the work, relied on anti-CIA interrogation pseudo-experts, and stuffed with Democratic electioneering folderol.