Helen Mirren Reads Feinstein's 'Torture Report' for John Oliver Segment

Helen Mirren read passages of the so-called "Torture Report" released in December for British comedian John Oliver, who used the audio as part of a finger-wagging segment on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight."

Throughout the segment, Oliver scolded America for the CIA's past interrogations of terrorists following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"If enhanced interrogation were not torture, which it is, and even if torture did work, which it doesn't, America should not be a country that tortures people," he said, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

Along the way, the left-wing critic also made fun of Ford trucks, and hurled ad hominem at Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, calling him "an ill-tempered bullfrog in a robe."

While Oliver did acknowledge that 57 percent of Americans believe that "aggressive tactics provide information to prevent terror attacks," according to a 2014 CBS News poll, he failed to mention the intense criticism the report received when it was released.

The roughly 500-page report released by Senate Intelligence Committee — headed by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein — was largely dismissed as distorted and partisan when it was revealed that the committee did not interview a single member of the CIA after spending roughly $50 million to compile it.

Gen. Michael Hayden, the former CIA director, was not contacted nor interviewed to provide context for the interrogation program, for example.

The committee's Republican minority criticized the report, writing in it that "With respect to the standard of objectivity, we were disappointed to find that the updated Study still contains evidence of strongly held biases."

The report's "claim that the CIA’s interrogation program was ineffective in producing intelligence that helped us disrupt, capture, or kill terrorists is just not accurate," wrote former CIA directors George J. Tenet, Porter J. Goss, and Michael Hayden, and former CIA deputy directors John E. McLaughlin, Albert M. Calland, and Stephen R. Kappes in response to the report.

Additionally, the report allegedly ruined the relationship between the CIA and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee. President Barack Obama relies heavily on the CIA, and reserved criticism of the agency upon release of the report.

Related Stories:

• 15 Tweets That Show Americans Don't Care That Terrorists Were Tortured
  
• Feinstein Torture Report Is a Sham
  
• John McCain Torture Report: Senator Defends Controversial Release