The Senate Intelligence Committee's plan to release its report that the CIA engaged in torture during the George W. Bush administration is intended to purposely hurt the war on terror, says Republican operative Karl Rove.
The committee is run by Democrats until Republicans take over the Senate in January, and Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein has the final say over the report's release. Republicans have said it would endanger the lives of Americans overseas, and even Secretary of State John Kerry has advised against making it public.
The report has "deliberate intent of diminishing the Central Intelligence Agency and further undermining of the very concept of a war against terrorism," Rove said Monday on Fox News Channel's
"The O'Reilly Factor."
Rove said the hard left will never be convinced that so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" worked, but he said the public should be reminded that they served a purpose in a "dark moment for our country to keep our country safe."
Rove said that what the report calls torture helped the United States find and kill al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden. He said it helped in others ways that will never be known by the public.
American intelligence agents overseas have been placed on alert they might be in danger because of reaction to the report.
The Fox News legal analyst told Fox News Channel's
"The Kelly File" on Monday he favors releasing the report because Americans should be allowed to know what has been done in their name, and that what is illegal for citizens should also be illegal for the government.