165,000 Sign Petition to Udall: Release the Torture Report
Last Updated on December 4, 2014.
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Media contact: Ashley Houghton, Ashley@rethinkmedia.org, 301-793-6604
165,000 Sign Petition to Udall: Release the Torture Report
Petition Delivered to Udall’s Office Days After He Agrees “All Options Are On The Table”
December 4, 2014 (Washington, DC) – More than 165,000 Americans have called for Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) to submit the Senate Intelligence Committee’s CIA torture report to the Congressional Record. Representatives from Daily Kos, The Nation, Demand Progress, and 11 other organizations gathered in Senator Udall’s hill office at 3:00pm EST to deliver the petition and encourage him to release the report before leaving office in January.
The so-called “torture report” was compiled by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), the Senate committee charged with conducting oversight of the CIA’s secret activities. According to committee members, the report has found that members of the CIA kidnapped detainees based on faulty information, tortured detainees after 9/11, hid those practices from overseeing bodies, and failed to gather national security information that could not have been gathered through alternative means. However, since the committee held a bipartisan vote to release the executive summary, the CIA was put in charge of its own redaction process and the report has been trapped in negotiations for several months. While the Senator Dianne Feinstein and other members of the committee have rolled back the redactions, the CIA has nonetheless prevented the report from being released. Senator Udall’s departure from the Senate next year provides the political cover and legal opportunity required to close the book on the report and finally enter it into the public record. Just yesterday, Senator Udall alluded to releasing the report into the public record, saying, “All options are on the table. We must get the truth out.”
“Senator Udall has the chance to change the course of history,” noted David Segal of Demand Progress. “He could bring accountability to the CIA and ensure that torture does not happen again, showing that spying on Senate computers and unnecessary redactions won’t stand in the way of knowing the truth of what happened after 9/11.”
A poll conducted by PPP earlier this year found that 69% of Americans believe the report should be made public.
“All members of the intelligence community should be held to the highest standard, and it’s clear that several officers abused the constitution by torturing prisoners under their care,” added Daily Kos’ Carissa Miller. “Americans have a right to know what was done in their names after 9/11.”