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The Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Dianne Feinstein of California, is soon expected to release its summary of the so-called CIA Torture Report, the committees four-year-long investigation into the CIAs Bush-era torture practices. Release of the summary is the result of months of wrangling and negotiating with the White House on what would be released to the public and whenand it will likely be heavily redacted. During an interview conducted on Friday, November 21, by Esquire writer at large Scott Raab, outgoing senator Mark Udall of Colorado, who lost his reelection race on November 4, once again said that if the report is not released in a way he deems transparent, he would consider all options to make it public. In this excerpt from the interview, Raab asks Udall if he will read the document into the record on the floor of the Senate before he leaves in January, an act for which he cannot be prosecuted.
The full interview will be published in the January 2015 issue of Esquire.
Scott Raab: Your loss is seen as symbolic of the midterm sea change. How does it feel?
Mark Udall: It stings and I feel liberated. . . . I dont like losing. I dont like being turned back from the summit of a mountainIm a mountain climberbut I have always found that the mountains I didnt climb are the ones that taught me the most. So Im taking that attitude towards this election loss. . . . But its been hard to be here for the last couple of weeks. When you get fired, usually its Clean your desk out and go, and Ive got two months of work left to do. We do have some things Im working hard to get accomplished. I want to get the CIA Torture Report declassified.
SR: Ive been puzzling through this. Youve talked about how Edward Snowden should come back.
MU: Yep.
"What happened broke faith in the Constitution....And it is morally repugnant. When this report is declassified, people will abhor what they read. Theyre gonna be disgusted."
SR: But hes gonna be charged with crimes that could put him behind bars forever. And youre in a position to read this into the public record.
MU: Sure. Yeah.
SR: Is there any reason not to do that? Not do what Mike Gravel did with the Pentagon Papers? What is the tightrope there? You got a $40 million 6,300-page report, right?
MU: Yes.
SR: And all the pressures on you right now to
MU: I have made it clear over the last couple of weeksif the report is not declassified in a way thats transparent and shines a bright light on what we did, then I will consider using all and any options.
SR: Ive heard this before.
MU: And right now, we are at the point where Im still optimistic that the White House, working with a committee, is going to do the right thing, which is to declassify the report in a way thats understandable and transparent. And so Im working through what we call regular order here in Washington. But if, in my opinion, the report is eitherobviously, if its not released, then Im gonna use every power I have, because its too important. Its too historic. And we cant afford to repeat the mistakes to let this slide.
. . . .
SR: So you dont just have the report, you have an agency that hacked the committees computers.
MU: Right. Four times. Four times.
SR: You called for CIA director John Brennans resignation.
MU: There are some that would like this report never to see the light of day. There are some that are running out the clock. There are some that are raising the specter that the CIA employees involved would somehow be subject to not only threats but potential action that would affect their personal safety. Those personnel, if they have that worry, can be given some legitimate security. . . .
The people who conducted these activities in the name of the CIA, in the name of the American people, have a right to be processed. They dont have a right to [pause] push under the rug what happened.
SR: Right.
MU: What happened broke faith in the Constitution. Its made our challenge much greater when it comes to facing the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. And it is morally repugnant. When this report is declassified, people will abhor what they read. Theyre gonna be disgusted. Theyre gonna be appalled. Theyre gonna be shocked at what we did. But it will lay a foundation whereby we dont do this in the future. Thats been my goal. Thats been my mission.