personnel who supported them were justified in compromising our values. whether they served a greater good, or whether, as i believe, they stained our national honor, did much harm, and little practical good. what were the policies? what was their purpose? did they achieve it? did they make us safer? less safe? or did they make no difference? what did they gain us? what did they cost us? the american people need the answers to these questions. yes, some things must be kept from public disclosure to protect clandestine operations, sources, and methods, but not the answers to these questions. by providing them, the committee has empowered the american people to come to their own decisions about whether we

should have employed such practices in the past, and whether we should consider permitting them in the future. this report strengthens self government and america's security and stature in the world, and i thank the committee for that valuable public service. i have long believed some of these practices amounted to torture as a reasonable person would define it, especially, but not only the practice of water boarding, which is a mock execution, and an exquisite form of torture. it's use was shameful and unnecessary, and contrary to some assertions, it produced little useful intelligence to help us track down the perpetrators of 9/11 or prevent new attacks and atrocities.

i know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. i know victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information, if they think they captors believe it. i know they think their torturers will say whatever they want them to say, if they believe it will stop their torture. and that which most distinguishes us from our enemies, our belief that all people, even captured enemies process basic human rights which are protected by international conventions, the united states not only joined but for the most part authored. i know bad things happen in war. i know in war good people can

feel obliged to do things they normally would recoil from. and i know that those who approve these methods and those who use them were dedicated to securing justice for the victims of terrorist attacks, and to protect americans from further harm. i know their responsibilities were grave and urgent, and the strain of their duty was onerous. i respect their dedication and appreciate their delil ma, but i dispute wholeheartedly that it was right for them to use these methods, which this report makes clear were neither in the best interests of justice, nor our security, nor the ideals we have sacrificed so much blood and treasure to defend.

to the militaryendments 2006 which among other things attempted to weaken article three and pruden definitions in the war crimes act, to make the future and other enhanced interrogation techniques punishable as war crimes. what was and wasn't achieved in an effort to encouraging support for the legislation. this was a good amount of misinformation used in

2011 to credit the use of these for the death of osama bin laden, and there is, i fear, misinformation being used today to prevent the release of this report disputing it's findings inen waying about the security consequences of their public disclosure. yes, i suppose that's possible, perhaps likely. sadly, violence needs little incentive in some corners of the world today, but that doesn't mean, we will be telling the world something it will be shocked to learn. the entire world already knows that we water boarded prisoners. it knows we subjected prisoners to various other types of detrading treatment. it knows we used back sites secret prisons, those practices haven't

been a secret for a decade. terrorists may use the reports of the practices as an excuse to attack americans. put they hardly need an execution for that, that is been their high's calling for a while now. what might come as a surprise, not just to our enemies but to many americans, is how hitle these practices did to aid our efforts to bring 9/11 culprits to justice, and to find and prevent terrorist attacks today and tomorrow. that can be a real surprise. sense it contradicts the many assurances provided by intelligence officials on the record and in private, that enhanced interrogation techniques were indispensable in the war against terrorism. and i suspect the objection of those same officials to the release of of this report is focused on that disclosure. tortures ineffectiveness

because we gave up much in the expectation that torture would make us safer. too much. obviously we need intelligence to defeat our enemies but we need reliable intelligence, torture produces more misleading information than actionable intelligence and what the advocates methods have never established, is that we could haven't gathered as good or more reliable intelligence from using humane methods. the most important lead we got in the search for bin laden came from using conventional interrogation methods. i think it is an insult to the many spell jens officers who have acquired good intelligence, without hurting or degrading officers to assert we can't win this war without such methods yes we can, and we will. but in the end, torture's failure to served it's

intended purpose isn't the main reason to oppose it's use. i have often said, and will always maintain, that this question isn't about our enemies, it is about us. it is about who we were, who we are, and who we aspire to be. it is how we represent ourselves to the world we have made our way in this often dangerous and cruel world not just by pursuing our interesting, but by kemi fying our political values and innuancing other nations to emplace them. when we fight to defend our security, we fight also for an ideal. not for a tribe or a twisted interpretation of an ancient religion or for a king, but for an idea that all men, are endowed by their creator with rights.

how much saivite world would be if all nations believed the same. how much more dangerous it can become, when we forget it ourselves even momentarily. our enemies act without conscious, we must not. this executive summary of the committee report makes clear, that acting without conscience isn't necessary it isn't even helpful in winning this honk and strange war we are fighting. we should be grateful to have that truth affirmed. now. >> so that was senator john mckane speaking in capitol hill. so expected reaction now coming in senator mccain thanking the committee for the reheats. cheerily not a supporter.

who had come out earlier and said that the interrogations of terrorism suspects were absolutely and totally justified. >> well, you have to remember, too, that the comments of john mccain certainly carry a lot of weight, given the fact that he has been a victim of torture, as a prisoner of war himself, and his own military service. he is still often just sort of managing with a pairly functioning arm. so when he says that this is really a stain on the national honor of the united states, it carries an awful lot of weight, and he was one of the biggest supporters of dianne finestein and seeing that this comes out. and saying that these were shameful and unnecessary, and provided very little useful spell jens, something that has already been directly challenged by the c.i.a. director, who has issued a statement, saying that is not the case, that this has led to many attacked being thwarted lives being saved be but

the point is, the fact this has been released now, something that may not have been possible with a republican led congress to come into play in january. it was the believe that this report needed to. co out and the mean people needed that transparency as well as the rest of the world. >> all right, thank you very much. joining us from capitol hill, crossing over to lindsay -- she is now a correspondent for al jazeera, so dianne finestein speaking earlier on, when she says that the c.i.a. torture report is too important to shelf. what happens next? [actually hearing dianne talk, it fills me with a kind of sadness, really,

for the organization that i used to be a part of, i left in 2003. one of which was that the torture program at that time was in full swing, and was being talked about in the hallway, although i wasn't a part of it, what made me sad is how many times she referred to c.i. a. intelligence officers who questioned the ethicacy of the program. who questioned the management of the program. and that those -- that questioning really fell on deaf earring. and that was so familiar to me. when you thinks that are just wrong, there is no recourse. is this any validity to their arguments.

>> well, there is a validity, i do agree with that. the c.i.a. was under tremendous pressure after september 11th, and i think that's what caused the c.i.a. to veer so far from the morale compass of the country, that it's intended to serve. i don't dispute at all that the agency was under pressure to get actionable intelligence, that said, the c.i.a. operatives are not trained interrogators and one thing that is coming out in this report, or that comes out in the summary, is that this is a program that was mismanaged as the case may be, by two c.i.a. contractors. that doesn't surprise me at all. i found that very familiar. at the time i was at the agency, i think any veteran intelligence operative, would have

argued that interrogation -- harsh interrogation and torture do not yield effective results. that you do not get actionable intelligence. if you torture someone, of course they will talk, they will say whatever you want them to say, but the attitude at the agency within the director of operations at the time i was there, is that you would never get good information through torture. so i think the reason that the agency higher ups are objecting so much, is not because they fear that cia operatives or foreign assets are in danger, i think it is embarrassing to them, because this lifeboat claiming that these methods were effective, has been proved to be false something that many of us made the claim long ago. >> from what you have seen from the summary, and also from what you have heard from dianne, is there any evidence that you would have liked

to see that you didn't? we're not going to see everything. i think the gravest travesty is that this videotapes of the sessions were systematically destroyed. and what i consider, and i think what many people consider an illegal and unconstitutional manner. i do think the summary of what i heard gis a very good picture of what actually happened, and finally enabled the american public to judge for themselves. if they wanted this program carrying out in their name. and i think that the outage that is anticipated i think a lot of the outrage is going to be from within the american public. crossing over to the white house now in bringing in patty call

haines to tell us what the long term implications patty could be of this release and this information? >> i think it is important to go back and find out. some of the details in this report, and they are disturbing, first we do know that 119 people according to this report were held in those cia prisons overseas. in one prison an inmate died of hypothermia pause he was chained maked to the floor, the officer wasn't disciplined and the c.i.a. didn't even know techniques were happening in that site. this' evidence that even more than the three people we know about, possibly were water boarded, the cia had told congress that it didn't happen in this one facility, but they found a picture that showed a well used water board ard cooing to the report. they say that 11 specific plots were failed, they

names all the plots. the president talked about these plots president bush, but this report says this' no evidence that these techniques foiled any plots or found any suspects specifically enwith it comes to osama bin laden. we know about the sleep deprivation. and it is worse than we first learned. 180 hours that's how long they could keep detainees than sleeping that's more than a week. there's five that experience pooed that experienced hallucinations, one of the other things that the c.i.a. would do is drag people out of their cells they would tape them with tape they would put a hood over their head, drag them up and down a hallway while beating them. the other thing in the report, five had rectal feeding and hydration that was not medically necessary, and three were threatened with their children to be harmed or the c.i.a. told them they would rape their mothers. that's just some of the details. >> yeah, you are right,

but let me just ask you again, what we think the long term implications of this information that's. released and everything you have been outlining for us? well, president obama has ruled out prosecuting anyone involved and he just put out a statement, to you if i could. he said rather than another reason to refight old arguments i hope today's report can can help us leave these techniques in the past. today is a reminder that upholding the values we profess doesn't make us weaker it makes us stronger. and hook to prosecute any of the people involved even though that is exactly what some inside the united nations are calling for. congress i should point out does have the ability to hold people accountability for highing to congress, because this report says basically the c.i.a. lied to everyone, the president, the white house, the national security council, members of congress, the public, highing to congress is illegal, they could prosecute, but that's

unlikely to happen. let's not forget they didn't want this released in the first place. reporting from outside the white house. i don't think there will be anything new at all. i think they will try to recount those pages that have been said. we know there are images of the torture that have come out from iraq, and that is key, because we are asking as to why they have risen and why there's such an inna makes of the situation, that's where the torture began and that's where the torture was justified, that's where the torture continued by the regime afterwards and that's where vault that i.s. rose, and we need to remember that al quaida was never in iraq before the invasion so that invasion itself was based

on torture. who was tortured into giving a false confession which was used pi the united states for a case of war in iraq. that's one of the reasons why people are reacting in this way it is that image of guantanamo, so that's what has happened is as they have sown essentially, and what we have to see is this is supposed to be about accountability. why did he say he would close guantanamo, and stop torture, and then say quite quickly those people involved in torture will be immune from prosecution. who else could expect to be immune from such crimes other than people like the c. i.a.? it is wholly outrageous, so i think there has to be a process of accountability. they should be allowed to be prosecuted and go through the system, our

diplomatic editor, he is joining us to tell us whether anything is being said over at the u.n. on the release of the summary of this report absolutely. this people talking about it all over this building a real sense of unsays p a spokesman had his daily news conference. reporters there asked about the torture report. they are promising excepts to come after they have fully studied the report. remember coming up on wednesday, international human rights day so it may well be the breeches of human rights are discussed and they make a full statement former hi

released yet lit be the first few minutes. he is the u.n. special repertoire on counter terrorism and human rights. this is his mar subject that he exams and he says he welcomes the belated publication of this report which shows crimes of torture and forced disappearance. he says it is now time to bring to justice those responsible. he says they must face criminal penalties and the fact this was authorized at the highest level of u.s. government is no excuse whatsoever. he says this should apply not just to those that carries out the the abuses that were there in those december tension centers but also to those who devised planned and authorized these crimes you have already had the difficulty, he says the u.s. must bring these people to justice because of the treaties that it

signed into law. it signed the convention against torture anden enforced disappearances so he says the u.s. must under those treaties which it signed bring those responsibility for torture to justice. one other thing to add, we have signatures they have signed the statute that set up the international criminal court here, at the moment, and i can tell you they are also talking about this report, i think we all knew that this was some very bad things going on that there was some very bad instances of torture, but i think when you listen to the people speaking what they are talking about is the damming detail. >> after the 9/11 attacks, it's revealed a 480 page report wrapping up five years of

investigations into the controversial tactics she spoke at length about how the government was mislead. >> detainees and treatment, because c.i.a. analysts believe often in error that they knew more information than what they had provided sometimes managers in the field were uncomfortable with what they were being asked to do, and recommended ending the abuse of the detainee. repeatedly, in such cases they were overruled by people at c.i.a. headquarters who thought they knew better. well she also spoke about why there was no ideal time to release the torture report. >> i have gone through a

great deal of interspection, about whether to delay this release to a later time. that clearly is a period of turmoil and instability in many parts of the world, unfortunately, that's going to continue for the foreseeable future, with this report is released or not. there are those who will seize upon the report. and say ski what the americans did, and they h try to use it to justify evil actions or incite more violence. we can't prevent that. but history will judge us to a commitment to a just society governed by law, and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say never again. scraws to bring you some other news.

has fired his vice president joyce -- he was left go days after she lost her post in the ruling party. she has been accused of aattempting to assassinate a frenchman who was kidnapped in mali three years ago has been freed. he was captured by a group linked to al quaida. the french president says that he is in relatively good health, despite the conditions of his captivity. qatar says it is joining other gulf monarchies in supporting egypt's leader road map for reconciliation, this is happening at the annual summit of the leaders of the gulf state who have gathered here in doha. g.c.c. ambassadors and the u.a.e. only recently returned to doha after a diplomatic row over support the the muslim

brotherhood. the gulf countries depend on unity and we need to get rid of sectarian rifts. terrorism in our age, and our region in particular, and the challenge terrorism puts on every one of us necessitates the community to work collectively and adopt the measures in order to get rid of terror stitch to deal with the real reasons that the political social and economic reasons for such terrorism. we need to pay attention to the fact that violence and oppression, and the lack of security will lead to this. >> so that's what was happening what is happening right now, in fact also our other top

story more in just a moment, stay with us.

>> i'm ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first

choice for the news. >> binding them ahome. cunning around the word taking in more than 100,000 syrian refugees.