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Ex-CIA director: Sen. Feinstein too 'emotional' on CIA torture

Iran Press TV

Mon Apr 7, 2014 6:28AM GMT

Former CIA director Michael Hayden says the chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Dianne Feinstein (D-California), is being too "emotional" about the CIA's torture techniques.

In an interview with "Fox News Sunday," Hayden cited remarks made by Feinstein last month when she said that declassifying a Senate report on the CIA's torture techniques could "ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted."

Hayden criticized Feinstein for making "emotional" remarks about the US spy agency's torture practices, saying such feelings show the Senate report cannot be objective.

"That sentence – that motivation for the report – may show deep, emotional feeling on the part of the senator, but I don't think it leads you to an objective report," he said.

Later on Sunday, Feinstein struck back at the former CIA director's criticism, saying her panel's report is "objective, based on fact, thoroughly footnoted, and I am certain it will stand on its own merits."

The California Democrat also said that the report's conclusions "came from documents provided by the CIA and the result is a comprehensive history of the CIA program. The only direction I gave staff was to let the facts speak for themselves."

The 6,300-page report, which details torture techniques – including water-boarding, wall-slamming, and shackling – used by the CIA under the administration of George W. Bush, opened a rift between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA, with each side accusing the other of spying.

The Senate panel reviewed more than six million pages of CIA documents and other records on the agency's controversial programs in order to compose the report.

The CIA has not accepted some of the report's conclusions and has resisted the push from a number of the Senate panel's members for the release of the report.

On Thursday, Senators on the Intelligence Committee voted to make public parts of the report. The summary of the report will go to the White House and the CIA. According to Politico, US President Barack Obama is the one who decides whether the summary should be further redacted before being disclosed.

ISH/ISH