The need for radical transparency on U.S. torture

[bemildred]

Here's a radical idea: Let the people decide.

Since the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture last week, we have been treated to a predictable barrage of overheated hyperbole. The left says the CIA program was utterly pointless and needlessly brutal; the right says it was completely successful and entirely appropriate. Many have demanded prosecutions; many more have attacked the report as partisan and incomplete. Both sides squared off before most had even read the report, let alone studied it closely.

And even if people had access to it, they would be studying a heavily redacted summary of a much larger report that remains secret. There are no plans to release the rest of the report or to reveal the content of the redactions. More important, no one — as far as I know — has even suggested releasing the underlying documentation so people could form their own conclusions.

And so we are left with a bitter but inconclusive debate about one of the most important programs in our nation's history.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-margulies-torture-report-transparency-20141219-story.html

[on point]

1. It is never a question of efficacy. Torture is illegal in ALL situations and scenarios. Period.