Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) may have lost his Senate seat to underdog candidate Cory Gardner in this November’s elections, but he hasn’t let that stop him from making some explosive statements on the Senate floor about the recently-released “torture report” detailing interrogation techniques used during the George W. Bush Administration.
Today, Udall called for the resignation of CIA director John Brennan, and lambasted the Administration for the apparent lack of accountability on the part of the CIA and other intelligence agencies who used the enhanced techniques the early Obama Administration promised to discontinue and investigate.
From The Hill:
“It’s bad enough to not prosecute these officials but to reward and promote them is incomprehensible,” Udall said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The president needs to purge his administration.”Udall reiterated his call for the resignation of CIA director John Brennan, saying he should no longer lead the agency because officials hacked into the Intelligence Committee’s computers during their investigation and deleted a file.He also spilled some findings from the so-called Panetta review, which was not included in the Senate panel’s report but is expected to paint a damning picture of the CIA’s public statements about the interrogation program.“Director Brennan and the CIA today are continuing to willfully provide inaccurate information and misrepresent the efficacy of torture,” Udall said.“The CIA is lying. This is not an issue of the past, this is going on today.”“To date there has been no accountability for the CIA’s actions or the actions of Director Brennan.”Udall criticized Obama, saying he has failed to live up to his campaign promises about transparency and accountability for the CIA’s techniques.“The White House has not led on transparency, as then-Sen. Obama promised in 2007,” he alleged.
Whether Udall is frustrated following the loss of his Senate seat, or legitimately frustrated with the actions of Administration, remains to be seen. But I think it’s significant that he’s using the last few weeks of his term to speak so forcefully on an issue that implicates not only President Obama, but high ranking officials in the Administration as well.
Udall’s words are galvanizing the positions of Republicans who support the release of the report, including Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Rand Paul (R-KY), who are using their floor time to push for more transparency in the war on terror.
If Democrats’ goal is to solidify the battle lines going into the last two years of their control of the White House, Udall’s statements won’t help clarify their messaging on who the bad guys are.
And by “bad guys,” I of course mean, “Republicans.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY