Vote to Declassify Report on CIA

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Vote to Declassify Report on CIA
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The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a
vote on Thursday to decide whether or not they
want to declassify the key findings and summary
of a CIA report the panel has been working on for
five years. The declassification of this document
will allow the public to read the committees
conclusions about the CIAs secret torture
program. Officials say that the report reveals
how the CIA misled the government and the public
about aspects of its brutal interrogation program
for years. It also concludes that the CIA has
been concealing details about the severity of its
methods, overstating the significance of plots
and prisoners, and taking credit for critical
pieces of intelligence that detainees had in fact
surrendered before they were subjected to harsh
techniques. Also included in the 6,300-page
report are new disclosures about a sprawling
network of secret detention facilities, or black
sites, that were dismantled by President Obama
in 2009. The committee who released the report
did not assign motives to CIA officials whose
actions or statements were scrutinized nor did it
recommend administrative punishment or further
criminal inquiry into the program. However, the
declassification of this document will likely
reignite an unresolved public debate over a
period that many regard as the most controversial
in CIA history as well as the use of torture
during interrogation.
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In Other News

• On Monday a leading aid agency reported that an
  outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in west
  Africa has spread to Guinea's capital and beyond
  its borders in an "an unprecedented epidemic. A
  total of 122 patients are suspected of
  contracting Ebola and 78 have died. Most victims
  have been in Guinea, but the World Health
  Organization reported that two deaths in Sierra
  Leone and one in Liberia are suspected to have
  been caused by the Ebola virus. The various aid
  agencies are worried because although the viris
  is rare, if someone does contract Ebola there is
  no cure and it's fatal in up to 90 of cases.
  Previous outbreaks have been much more
  geographically contained and involved more remote
  locations so this geographical spread will
  greatly complicate the tasks of the organizations
  working to control the epidemic.
• According to both Israeli and U.S. officials, the
  Obama administration is considering the early
  release of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard
  as part of an effort to keep U.S.-backed peace
  talks from collapsing. Pollards release would be
  an enormous prize for Israeli Prime Minister
  Benjamin Netanyahu, providing President Obama
  with a significant advantage in the U.S.-led
  effort to create an independent Palestinian
  state.
• On Monday the Boy Scouts of America removed
  Scoutmaster Geoff McGrath, 49, for deliberately
  injecting his sexuality into scouting. The
  banned scoutmaster is believed to be the first
  openly gay adult to be barred since last years
  ballot in which the Scouts voted to accept openly
  gay youth but not gay adult leaders.