Minority CIA Report Says Program ‘Saved Lives, Played Vital Role In Weakening Al Qaeda’

The GOP minority released a rebuttal report refuting the claims made in the Democrats’ majority report, which criticized the CIA enhanced interrogation program as ineffective and misleading. A Democrat-led Senate panel headed up by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) Tuesday released the CIA report on enhanced interrogation despite dire warnings from lawmakers and intel officials. These warnings, which were even echoed by some within the Obama administration, contended the findings would “endanger the lives of Americans” all over the world.

“We have no doubt the CIA’s detention program saved lives and played a vital role in weakening Al Qaeda while the Program was in operation,” said the report written by Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).; Richard Burr (R-NC); James Risch (R-ID); Dan Coats (R-IN); Marco Rubio (R-FL); and Tom Coburn (R-OK).

Sen. Burr is set to take Feinstein’s place as the committee chair when the new Republican majority is sworn in January.

“When asked about the value of detainee information and whether he missed the intelligence from it, one senior CIA operator [redacted] told members: ‘I miss it every day.’ We understand why,” the senators wrote.

The report disputed the majority study’s argument that the interrogation techniques were not effective when used on Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Zubaydah.

CIA officials have been pushing back hard on the claims made in the report, including that the interrogation didn’t produce intelligence and that the CIA lied to the Bush administration regarding the tactics. Tuesday, Jose Rodriguez, the ex-CIA chief in charge of the enhanced interrogation program, reacted to the release of the CIA interrogation report. Rodriguez said Senate Democrats released a bogus partisan report aimed to throw the CIA “under the bus” in order to cover for themselves.

Former CIA Directors George J. Tenet, Porter J. Goss and Michael V. Hayden, and former CIA Deputy Directors John E. McLaughlin, Albert M. Calland and Stephen R. Kappes, penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal claiming, in fact, the program did work and provided plenty detailed accounts of actionable intelligence gathering to prove it.

“Our view on this is shared by the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Republican minority, both of which are releasing rebuttals to the majority’s report,” the three former CIA heads wrote. “Both critiques are clear-eyed, fact-based assessments that challenge the majority’s contentions in a nonpartisan way.”

A group of former CIA officials launched a website called CIASavedLives.com in response to the committee’s majority report, defending the agency’s