Had I not authorized waterboarding on senior al Qaeda leaders, I would have had to accept a greater risk that the country would be attacked. But the choice between security and values was real. I would have preferred that we get the information another way. When it did, we would open ourselves up to criticism that America had compromised our moral values. I knew that an interrogation program this sensitive and controversial would one day become public. No doubt the procedure was tough, but medical experts assured the CIA that it did not lasting harm. Another technique was waterboarding, a process of simulated drowning. There were two that I felt went too far, even if they were legal.
They concluded that the enhanced interrogation program complied with the Constitution an all applicable laws, including those that ban torture. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate.ĭepartment of Justice and CIA lawyers conducted a careful legal review. There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. Sadly, the Bush Administration led the nation into war under false pretenses.
To accomplish this, top Administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and al Qaeda as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11. It is my belief that the Bush Administration was fixated on Iraq, and used the 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda as justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed. In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence. Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced.
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