Any private citizen would be prosecuted under U.S. espionage laws for releasing similar information.

Not many years ago in America, some actions were deemed so low as to be unthinkable to even the most radical of self-absorbed politicians.  The release to the public of information that would put the lives of American citizens at unnecessary risk would certainly be among them.  We now have irrefutable evidence that the governing class in Washington is so hopelessly corrupt and that there exists no despicable plot that the left will not employ to attain a political advantage. 

As the outgoing Chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, California Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein has decided to release a CIA report outlining what it calls, “enhanced interrogation techniques,” that were used following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  Included in the report is the much-maligned practice of water-boarding, in which a subject’s face is covered with a cloth as water is poured on him, creating the illusion of being drowned.  Other horrendous techniques used by the CIA and described in the report are sleep-deprivation and chaining subjects in cold prisons.  The left characterizes these methods as brutal and refers to them as torture. 

The document being released is a declassified and summarized 500-page version of a 6700-page report in which the authors failed to interview a single CIA official.  Democrats claim that the interrogation methods were “ineffective,” a charge contradicted by Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Jim Risch of Idaho.  Senator Feinstein claims it was important to release the report to show that the nation is willing to “face an ugly truth and say, ’never again.’”  Republicans on the committee condemn the report as “one-sided” as well as the release of the report which will cost taxpayers over $40 million and put U.S. citizens at risk overseas, including those at U.S. Embassies. 

Because control of the U.S. Senate will revert back to Republicans in January, Senator Feinstein’s leadership role on the Intelligence Committee is ending.  Nevertheless, the willful release of this information that will serve no beneficial purpose to the nation but will certainly endanger the lives of Americans overseas, makes this the kind of treacherous and contemptible self-serving political act we have come to expect from Democrats in Washington. 

Diane Feinstein was the author of the highly ineffective so-called, “assault weapons ban” which restricted the sale of certain firearms based upon their menacing appearance or the number of rounds they could contain.  The restriction of these weapons had no effect on gun violence in the U.S. for the simple reason that people who are bent on killing others ignore them. 

What was missing from Senator Feinstein’s discussion about what is being called the “CIA Torture Report” is any balance of perspective.  Feinstein and her Democrat colleagues refuse to acknowledge or attempt to understand that the terrorist enemies of the United States do not place the value upon human life that we do.  Therefore, treating them as we would a U.S. citizen is totally inappropriate.  It’s foolishness to ask those who are tasked with defending us in wartime, to limit their actions to what we would tolerate in a civil society.  There is nothing civil about war.  Union General Sherman referred to war simply as brutality.  To demand civil treatment from those who defend us against suicidal butchers who use civilians as human shields is reckless ignorance unbefitting a member of the U.S. Senate. 

We make the same reckless mistakes with law enforcement in the United States--affording rights to criminals that neither the police nor the victims of crime are entitled.  We prohibit facts about a criminal’s past crimes from trial so as not to prejudice the jury but permit the victims to be maligned and their reputations smeared without limit in the name of “putting on a vigorous defense.”  
 
The first and preeminent purpose of the United States government is to protect the American people.  When agents of our government not only fail to protect the people but actually put them at risk, those officials prove themselves unsuitable and must be expelled.  Their actions are no less destructive than treason.