The CIA's interrogation program castigated in a report Tuesday documents "how America lost its way in the immediate aftermath of 9/11," a Duke expert on national security says.
"The methods of interrogation that were approved at the highest level of our government should never have been permitted," said David Schanzer, an associate professor of public policy and an expert on counterterrorism and homeland security.
On Tuesday, a Senate Intelligence Committee's scathing report revealed a multitude of brutal and misleading practices by the CIA, including that more prisoners were subjected to waterboarding than the CIA had acknowledged.
Further, the report -- which took five years to produce and involved more than six million internal CIA documents -- said the agency's program lacked adequate oversight, misled members of Congress and the White House and was mismanaged.
"The interrogation methods used were grotesque, contrary to American values and a violation of both domestic and international law," said Schanzer, co-director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.
"When high-ranking Justice Department lawyers were being asked if it is OK to place a detainee inside a small covered box and then pour insects inside it, we should have known that something had gone terribly wrong," he said. "It is even worse that the answer that came back from the Justice Department was 'yes.'"
Schanzer added that the Bush administration deserves a great deal of credit for undertaking a number of difficult reforms after 9/11 to empower the U.S. government to effectively combat al Qaida.
But the CIA interrogation program "was a bad mistake and a permanent stain on the Bush administration’s legacy," he said. American interests, including embassies and military units, braced for possible security threats because of the report. Law professor Charlie Dunlap Jr. said he did not think releasing the findings would further endanger Americans or American allies, though he thought there may be some demonstrations and violence.
"Those who represent a danger are already doing everything they can to inflict harm," said Dunlap, a retired Air Force major general and an expert on warfare policy and strategy. "After all, ISIS is beheading innocent Americans and others -- they hardly need more motivation for barbarism."
Dunlap did say U.S. intelligence efforts could be damaged by the report.
"The risk is really to the ability of U.S. intelligence agencies to get the cooperation it needs from other countries, not to mention the debilitating effect on morale of CIA and other intelligence professionals," he said. Dunlap said a lot of people will ignore the fact that America’s interrogation policies have long since changed "because doing so will fit the narrative that they want to believe about the U.S. today."
"And they won’t pay any attention to those who are saying, as some already are, that the report is deeply flawed," he said. "Overall, I doubt it will change many minds, one way or another, as this issue is completely and intractably polarized."