Skip to main content

Curated research library of TV news clips regarding the NSA, its oversight and privacy issues, 2009-2014

Click "More / Share / Borrow" for each clip's source context and citation link. HTML5 compatible browser required

Primary curation & research: Robin Chin, Internet Archive TV News Researcher; using Internet Archive TV News service.

Speakers

Harry Reid
U.S. Senator,( D-Nevada), Majority Leader
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
Reid: And the implications of this report are profound. Not only is torture wrong but it doesn't work. And for people, we hear them coming from different places, saying it was great, it was terrific what we did, it got us so much. it got us nothing except a bad name. Without this report, the American people would not know what actually took place under the C.I.A.'s torture program. This critical report highlights the importance of senate oversight and the role that congress must play in overseeing the executive branch of government. The only way our country can put this episode in the past is to come to terms with what happened and commit to ensuring it will never happen again. This is how we as Americans make our nation stronger. When we realize there is a problem, we seek the evidence. We study it, we learn from it, and then we set about to enact change.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senator (D-CA), Chairman of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
Feinstein: This clearly is a period of turmoil and instability in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, that's going to continue for the foreseeable future whether this report is released or not. There are those who will seize upon the report and say, See what the Americans did? And they will try to use it to justify evil actions or incite more violence. We can't prevent that, but history will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say never again. There may never be the right time to release this report. The instability we see today will not be resolved in months or years, but this report is too important to shelve indefinitely.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senator (D-CA), Chairman of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
Feinstein: At no time did the CIA's coercive interrogation techniques lead to the collection of intelligence on an imminent threat that many believe was the justification for the use of these techniques. The committee never found an example of this hypothetical ticking time bomb scenario. The use of coercive technique methods regularly resulted in fabricated information. Sometime(s) the CIA actually knew detainees were lying. Other times the CIA acted on false information, diverting resources and leading officers or contractors to falsely believe they were acquiring unique or actionable intelligence and that its interrogations were working when they were not.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senator (D-CA), Chairman of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
Feinstein: Internally, CIA officers often called into question the effectiveness of the CIA's interrogation techniques, noting how the techniques failed to elicit detainee cooperation or produce accurate information. The report includes numerous examples of CIA officers questioning the agency's claims, but these contradictions were marginalized and not presented externally.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senator (D-CA), Chairman of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
Feinstein: Beginning with the first detainee, Abu Zubaydah, and continuing with numerous others, the CIA applied its so called enhanced interrogation techniques in combination and in near-stop fashion for days and even weeks at a time on one detainee. In contrast, the CIA representations, detainees were subjected to the most aggressive techniques immediately -- stripped naked, diapered, physically struck and put in various physical stress positions for long periods of time. They were deprived of sleep for days. In one case up to 180 hours. That's 7 1/2 days over a week with no sleep, usually standing or in stress positions, at times with their hands tied together over their heads chained to the ceiling.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
John McCain
U.S. Senator (R-AZ),
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
McCain: The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless. They must know when the values that define our nation are intentionally disregarded by our security policies, even those policies that are conducted in secret, they must be able to make informed judgments about whether those policies and the personnel who supported them were justified in compromising our values, whether they served a greater good or whether, as I believe, they stained our national honor, did much harm and little practical good.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
John McCain
U.S. Senator (R-AZ),
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
McCain: I have long believed some of these practices amounted to torture as a reasonable person would define it, especially but not only the practice of waterboarding which is a mock execution and an exquisite form of torture. its use is shameful and unnecessary, and contrary to assertions made by some of its defenders and as the committee's report makes clear, it produced little useful intelligence to help us track down the perpetrators of 9/11 or prevent new attacks and atrocities.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
John McCain
U.S. Senator (R-AZ),
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
McCain: I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally-misleading information if they think their captors will believe it. I know they will say whatever they think their torturers want them to say if they believe it will stop their suffering. Most of all, I know the use of torture compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies; our belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic human rights which are protected by international conventions the United States not only joined, but for the most part authored.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
John McCain
U.S. Senator (R-AZ),
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
McCain: I dispute wholeheartedly that it was right for them to use these methods which this report makes clear were neither in the best interests of justice, nor our security, nor the ideals we have sacrificed so much blood and treasure to defend. The knowledge of torture's dubious efficacy and my moral objection to the abuse of prisoners motivated by sponsorship of the detainee treatment act -- Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 which prohibits, quote, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of captured Combatants whether they wear a nation's uniform or not and which passed the senate by a vote of 90-9.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
John McCain
U.S. Senator (R-AZ),
CSPAN2 12/09/2014
McCain: I successfully offered amendments to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which, among other things, prevented the attempt to weaken Common Article III of the Geneva Conventions and broadened definition in the War Crimes Act-- definitions in the war crimes act to make the future use of waterboarding and other, quote, “enhanced interrogation techniques” punishable as war crimes. There was considerable misinformation disseminated then about what was and wasn't achieved using these methods in an effort to discourage support for the legislation. There was a good amount of misinformation used in 2011 to credit the use of these methods with the death of Osama bin Laden, and there is, I fear, misinformation being used today to prevent the release of this report, disputing its findings and warning about the security consequences of their public disclosure.
More / Share / Borrow
Add to Popcorn
Showing 1481 through 1490 of 1708