Updated March 24, 2014 SUPPORTERS OF DECLASSIFYING SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE REPORT ON CIA DETENTION AND INTERROGATION PROGRAM Affiliations are for identification purposes only CURRENT OR FORMER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): “We're not going to stop. I intend to move to have the findings, conclusions and the executive summary of the report sent to the president for declassification and release to the American people.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/transcript-sen-dianne-feinstein-says-cia- searched-intelligence-committee-computers/2014/03/11/200dc9ac-a928-11e3-8599- ce7295b6851c_story.html Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD): “I welcome the measures undertaken by President Obama immediately after his election to ensure that abusive practices were ended. But there is another step I believe the United States must now take: the release of the Senate intelligence report on detention and interrogation practices. That report has been sent to various government agencies for comment as part of a process that I hope will ultimately lead to the release of a declassified version.” -- U.S. Helsinki Commission http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentRecord_id=1104&Con tentRecordType=P&ContentType=P&CFID=30011108&CFTOKEN=90215992 Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL): “In my view, it is critically important to declassify the SSCI Study so that we can learn from, and hopefully not repeat, the mistakes of our past.” http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/top-intelligence-appropriator-blasts-cia-wants-torture-report-released/ Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM): “Recent efforts undertaken by the CIA, including but not limited to inaccurate public statements about the committee’s study, are meant to intimidate, deflect and thwart legitimate oversight. It only makes me firmer in my conviction that the committee should release and declassify the full 6,300-page study with minimal redactions so that the public can judge the facts for themselves.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/transcript-senate-intelligence- hearing-on-national-security-threats/2014/01/29/b5913184-8912-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT): “This only compounds the grave concerns I have had for years about the underlying conduct that the Senate Intelligence Committee has been investigating: the torture of detainees during the previous administration. I fully support Chairman Feinstein’s efforts to seek declassification of her committee’s report on the CIA detention and interrogation program.” http://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/statement-of-senator-patrick-leahy-d-vt-chairman-senate-judiciary- committee-on-cia-interference-with-senate-select-committee-on-intelligence-investigation * Denotes individuals that signed following statement: “I support release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the CIA’s rendition, detention and interrogation program. The public has the right to know the facts about our nation’s use of torture. Release of the report, with appropriate redactions, can help prevent torture from happening again.” Senator John McCain (R-AZ): “It is therefore my hope that this Committee will take whatever steps necessary to finalize and declassify this report, so that all Americans can see the record for themselves, which I believe will finally close this painful chapter for our country.” http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecor d_id=95e0a445-d569-80f9-f216-89ec7a7b6928&Region_id=&Issue_id= Senator Harry Reid (D-NV): “We do know, and there's been a number of public reports about this -- at least I believe that to be the case -- that the investigation that's been going on in the Intelligence Committee for years dealing with torture is about ready to come out. I haven't read it, but I think we should get that out and then find out what's going on.” http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/11/220874/reid-disappointed-cia-is-apparently.html Senator Charles S. Robb, former Governor of Virginia; Co-Chair President’s Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004); Marine Corps, Vietnam, Bronze Star recipient* Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV): “The President was right to use this opportunity to once again publicly condemn the use of torture. We know this approach is ineffective in gathering intelligence, and it is legally impermissible and morally repugnant. The 6,000 page report on the CIA detention and interrogation program that the Intelligence Committee completed over the course of many years makes this clear. Along with Vice President Biden and Senator McCain, I also believe that in order for our nation to move beyond the mistakes of the past, the record must be corrected and sunlight must be cast on that program.” http://www.rockefeller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=340e271f-a8d8- 4b9b-859c-1534a4584c54 Senator Mark Udall (D-CO): “I am renewing my push for the White House and the CIA to engage with the committee on the report, to declassify it and to come clean with the American people.” http://www.markudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=3374 Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): “I believe that the report should be declassified as soon as possible, with portions released in redacted form if some content must remain classified…. I think that allowing the public to know the facts will strengthen our nation’s commitment to legal forms of interrogation without damaging our national security.” -- Excerpt from a constituent letter Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR): "Without the significant facts and analysis provided by this report, the public debate over these interrogation techniques will continue to consist of opponents like myself saying torture doesn't work, and some former CIA officials claiming that it does. The public needs to see an infusion of facts so they can make up their minds for themselves and finally put this debate to rest." http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/12/13/cia_torture_report_poised_for_release_at_least_s ome_of_it#sthash.IkSRJzS7.dpuf CURRENT OR FORMER EXECUTIVE BRANCH OFFICIALS President Barack Obama: “I am absolutely committed to declassifying the report as soon as the report is completed. In fact, I would urge them to go ahead and complete the report and send it to us and we will declassify those findings so that the American people can understand what happened in the past and that can help guide us as we move forward.” http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/03/12/obama-declassify-senate-investigation-report- cia/1I4gsqIOMnJvo2sdi3UKQO/video.html Vice President Joe Biden: “I think the only way you excise the demons is you acknowledge, you acknowledge exactly what happened straightforward.” – McCain Institute Sedona Forum 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XnSnKQLxM Rosa Brooks, former Counselor to the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (2009-2011); former Senior Advisor at the U.S. State Department: “If we want to make sure the United States will never again resort to torture, we need to set out the factual record: what was done and with what effects.” “Unless the report is made public,[…]this debate will remain characterized by misinformation and unverifiable claims – increasing the danger that in the future, we’ll repeat past mistakes.” http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/01/06/we_can_handle_the_truth_cia_excuses_torture Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith, former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia; former Assistant Secretary- General of the United Nations* Jeh Johnson, former Department of Defense General Counsel (2009-2012): “We ought to declassify as much of it as we can.” -- Aspen Security Forum http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2013/07/23/watch- jeh-johnson-joins-bipartisan-call-to-release-of-the-senate-torture-report/ Harold H. Koh, former Legal Advisor to U.S. State Department (2009-2013); former Assistant Secretary of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (1998-2001): “You have not heard claims that this Administration has conducted torture, waterboarding, or enhanced interrogation tactics. To underscore that commitment, this would be an opportune moment, as Vice President Joe Biden pointed out on April 26, to make public the Senate Select Intelligence Committee’s as-yet-unreleased six-thousand-page report regarding the CIA’s former notorious “enhanced interrogation” program.” – Oxford Union Speech May 7, 2013 Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, former Ambassador to Combat Trafficking in Persons; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Organization Affairs; Global Politics and Security Chair, Georgetown University MSFS Program* Alberto J. Mora, former U.S. Navy General Counsel* Eric P. Schwartz, former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration at the U.S. State Department; former Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs*: “Subject to appropriate redactions of information the release of which would damage national security or put people at risk, it is difficult to imagine a compelling rationale not to make the report public. Moreover, the President would serve our interests by an early declaration that he strongly supports such release.” http://www.hhh.umn.edu/features/SchwartzCVTSpeech.html Ambassador William H. Taft, IV, former Deputy Secretary of Defense; former Chief Legal Advisor, Department of State*: “The American people deserve to know how torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of enemy prisoners, in violation of U.S. and international laws and standards, became U.S. policy. Until the report is publicly released, proponents of torture will continue to use the secrecy that surrounds the CIA’s detention and interrogation program to distort the facts.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reveal-what-us-torture-cost-us/2013/12/12/b23bf570-61c4- 11e3-bf45-61f69f54fc5f_story.html "Not only is honesty about our past mistakes fundamental to our national character, it is also in our diplomatic interests. The United States has long been admired because we live by our principles. Here is an important time for us to demonstrate that clearly. The rest of the world is watching to see what we do.