A former CIA analyst questioned the value of releasing the so-called "torture report" compiled by the U.S. Senate on the agency's treatment of captives after 9-11, telling
Newsmax TV on Monday that the report's accuracy, fairness and political motivations are all in dispute.
LIGNET analyst Lisa Ruth, formerly with the CIA, also told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner that blowback against the agency and its assets abroad could be damaging enough to eclipse whatever public good is served by issuing the report for the sake of democracy and transparency.
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The report could be made public as early as Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee's exiting Democrat chairwoman, is pushing for disclosure of the report's 500-page executive summary on Bush-era interrogations of Islamist terror suspects.
The report has remained under wraps as senators and the agency clashed over how much sensitive intelligence and diplomatic detail to publish.
Critics, including the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, say that publication will spur more terrorist attacks. Even Democrat Secretary of State John Kerry has advised caution on the timing of the
report's release.
"Although we're saying this is a Senate Intelligence Committee report, this is only the Democrats," said Ruth. "Keep in mind, the Republicans did not sign off on this and they did not participate in this. That, in itself, concerns me a little bit."
Secondly, said Ruth: "Is the information accurate? How accurate is it? [Former CIA and NSA director] Gen. [Michael] Hayden came out and said this is absolutely not accurate: Absolutely, unquestionably, not correct."
She added: "We know that the people who did the investigation did not talk to Hayden and did not talk to the CIA."
Given those concerns, said Ruth, "if we're going to release information that may not be accurate, how much value is there going to be and how much blowback is really worth it? I question this."
"Sometimes there isn't an advantage to making things open, and I hate to say that," said Ruth.
"The unfortunate truth is democracies around the world have intelligence services, which are only able to operate as long as their information is secret," she said.
She pointed to fallout from the mass release of secret U.S. diplomatic cables by Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.
"A lot of people thought, 'This is great, almost [like] reading a novel. Let's see how the CIA operates,' " said Ruth.
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But the upshot, she said, was that U.S. intelligence sources were murdered in Afghanistan.
"This is not speculation," she said, explaining, "The Taliban took the information from WikiLeaks, arrested these men, took them, beheaded them and killed them on the spot.
"These were people who were working for the U.S. to try to help bring democracy to that country," said Ruth. "There are very concrete repercussions for this information being leaked. People die. You can sit there and say, 'We should know.' Not really. There are things that are not public knowledge. There are things that are classified."
Ruth acknowledged the "ethical dilemma" and public revulsion over the use of
waterboarding, but she seconded the opinions of former President George W. Bush and ex-CIA directors that agents who waterboarded captives weren't "rogue," but were operating under government memoranda that such techniques were within the law.
"The question of whether it is right or wrong is a different issue," said Ruth. "For right now, it's legal."
Ruth also discussed the failed U.S. attempt to rescue al-Qaida hostage Luke Somers in Yemen, an operation that ended in the deaths of Somers' and a hostage from South Africa.
"These people lost their son, so certainly we have to take that into account," said Ruth.
But she argued that the attempt was worthwhile.
"Even though it didn't have the result we would've liked or that anyone would've liked, what we're saying is, 'We're no longer going to stand by and yes, you should be looking over your shoulder because we may be coming in,' " said Ruth.
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