WASHINGTON - Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King says he's "deeply disturbed" by the implications of a Senate investigation on CIA interrogation practices after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Senate Intelligence Committee released the report today, which includes the executive summary and conclusions from a still-classified 6,700-page full investigation.
King says the report makes it clear that "some detainees were subjected to techniques that constituted torture."
Moreover, King says, the report indicates that the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" were ineffective.
"Such brutality is unacceptable, and the misconduct on the part of some of the individuals involved in the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which is documented in the study, is inexplicable," King says, in a statement.
But King says one of the most disturbing things about the report is that it indicates that the CIA "continuously misled" members of the Senate Intelligence Committee about all aspects of the program, which "raises the extremely troubling question as to whether we can trust the representations of the agency in connection with difficult or sensitive issues in the future.
"If our principal oversight approach is based on frank and open communication with the CIA’s leadership, and we cannot fully rely upon the answers we receive, then the entire oversight function is compromised," King says.
King's Senate colleague, Susan Collins, says the report raises "serious concerns" about the CIA's management of the interrogation program, and indicates that some detainees were subjected to techniques that amounted to torture.
"Torture is wrong and fundamentally contrary to American values," Collins says, in a statement. "The report should be made public to allow the American people to reach their own conclusions and to make sure lessons are learned from the mistakes made so that they never happen again."
In April, both King and Collins voted in favor of declassifying the information released today.
