December 10, 2014

It seemed possible that Udall was going to read the torture report into the record before he left office, but he didn't have to. He's still determined to get as much of the truth out there as possible, it seems:

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) on Thursday called on President Obama to “purge” his administration of the CIA officials who were involved in the "enhanced interrogation" program detailed in a new Senate report.

“It’s bad enough to not prosecute these officials but to reward and promote them is incomprehensible,” Udall said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The president needs to purge his administration.”

Udall reiterated his call for the resignation of CIA director John Brennan, saying he should no longer lead the agency because officials hacked into the Intelligence Committee’s computers during their investigation and deleted a file.

He also spilled some findings from the so-called Panetta review, which was not included in the Senate panel’s report but is expected to paint a damning picture of the CIA’s public statements about the interrogation program.

“Director Brennan and the CIA today are continuing to willfully provide inaccurate information and misrepresent the efficacy of torture,” Udall said.

“The CIA is lying. This is not an issue of the past, this is going on today.”

“To date there has been no accountability for the CIA’s actions or the actions of Director Brennan.”

Udall criticized Obama, saying he has failed to live up to his campaign promises about transparency and accountability for the CIA’s techniques.

“The White House has not led on transparency, as then-Sen. Obama promised in 2007,” he alleged.

Udall’s comments came the day after Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released a 500-page report detailing the harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA under George W. Bush. Feinstein said the practices amounted to torture, and the report accuses the agency of misleading Congress and the White House about the program.

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