John Rizzo, CIA general counsel for the first nine years of America's war on terror, says the agency's use of torture absolutely did help stop terrorist attacks, despite a "one-sided, distorted" Senate report to the contrary.
Appearing on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV, Rizzo, a 34-year CIA veteran who involved in all decisions involving "enhanced interrogation," said:
"Absolutely, absolutely [it worked]. Why would the CIA continue to carry on a program for seven years when we were coming under increasingly public and political scrutiny?
"[It's an] insult really to our reputation and integrity. Why would we do all that so stoically and insistently for a program that wasn't yielding anything?"
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Rizzo said he attempted to get a sneak peak at the report as the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, worked on it, but was rebuffed. Neither Rizzo or any other CIA officials were interviewed for it.
"I saw it and I heard it and I saw the report … as Sen. Dianne Feinstein was making her speech and distributing the report to the world. I was not allowed access to the report," he said.
"I requested the final version a few months ago because I thought it was only fair for me and for my senior colleagues who, based on the leaks that were coming out, the report was going to accuse all sorts of malfeasance.
"I thought it would only be fair to at least let us see the damn thing before the rest of the world did. That never happened and that's on top of the fact none of us who were involved in the program, including myself, were ever interviewed during the course of that five-year investigation."
But when he did review the details of the report after it was released this week, "it was what I expected," Rizzo told Steve Malzberg.
"[Feinstein] did what we feared she would do, which is present a one-sided, distorted and unfair characterization of the program, what it achieved and about the motivations and actions of the entire CIA workforce who were involved.
"It was profoundly disappointing, but frankly not entirely surprising, coming from Sen. Feinstein."
Rizzo agreed the release of the report puts Americans at increased danger from terrorist organizations.
"I found it remarkable that last Friday Secretary of State John Kerry, after all the liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, felt compelled to call Sen. Feinstein and … either warn her or at least give her a notice that releasing the report at this particular time was going to expose Americans to serious threats from ISIS and elsewhere," he said.
"From my experience at the CIA, a secretary of State, especially someone with Secretary Kerry's background, wouldn't … [do] that unless [it] were perceived to be a real danger. I found that quite striking and telling."
Rizzo admitted that some methods of torture that were not condoned were administered.
"One or more of the incidents described are true. This was a program that was put together at a time of great national crisis, started from scratch under the highest urgency," he said.
"I will concede that especially in the early days, it was not managed as tightly as it could have been. When I say there were occasional abuses, you know, they were very occasional.
"This program lasted seven years, a remarkable record really in retrospect of effectiveness and prudence, but yes, there were the occasional abuses that you read about now."
But, he added, CIA management "promptly referred any abused prisoners beyond the authorized techniques immediately to the Justice Department and to the CIA inspector general.
"In other words, there was never any attempt to cover up the occasional abuse. We were very upfront with it at the time," Rizzo said.
He denied that the CIA ever lied to Congress about what it was doing.
"Not true. Not true. The accusations are so sweeping and so general it's just hard to know where to start, but it wasn't just the Congress. We've been accused of lying to the Justice Department, I mean, to the White House. It's preposterous," Rizzo said.
He said he is concerned about possible retaliation in certain parts of the world.
"I've read the feedback on the fallout from this from these overseas international courts of one kind or another indicating, urging that any of us named in the report as having participated in this program could be subject to arrest if we travel to certain parts of the world, including Europe," he said.
"So yeah, I'm concerned about that. I won't deny that."
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