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Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

Press Play with Madeleine Brand

‘The Report’ dramatizes CIA’s torture program during Bush administration

Abu Ghraib, CIA black sites, waterboarding. All those became household terms during the Bush administration and the War on Terror. But we didn’t really know what was going on.

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By Madeleine Brand • Nov 19, 2019 • 1 min read

Abu Ghraib, CIA black sites, waterboarding. All those became household terms during the Bush administration and the War on Terror. But we didn’t really know what was going on. The administration eventually admitted to “enhanced interrogation techniques.” And terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah may never go to trial because they were tortured.

In 2014, after more than five years of exhaustive, painstaking research, the Senate Intelligence Committee (led by Senator Dianne Feinstein) finally revealed the findings of its so-called “torture report.” Feinstein said, “There are those who will seize on the report and say, ‘See what the Americans did?’ And they will try to use it to justify evil actions or incite more violence. We can’t prevent that. But history will judge us by our commitment to a just society, governed by law, and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say, ‘Never again.’ ”

The full report remains classified to this day. The release of it is dramatized in a new film called “The Report.”

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    Madeleine Brand

    Host, 'Press Play'

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    Sarah Sweeney

    Vice President of Talk Programming, KCRW

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    Michell Eloy

    Line Editor, Press Play

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    Amy Ta

    Digital News & Culture Editor

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    Scott Z. Burns

    writer and director, “The Report”

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Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand