{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=ad9ada3d-1dd3-4455-b58f-4ab52d6676e9", "Feinstein Response to CIA Director on Detention, Interrogation Program", "2014-12-11", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "CA", "Dianne Feinstein", "F000062", "www.feinstein.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington\u2014Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today released the following statement after CIA Director John Brennan spoke about the CIA\u2019s detention and interrogation program:\r\n\r\n\u201cCIA Director Brennan\u2019s comments were not what I expected. They showed that CIA leadership is prepared to prevent this from ever happening again\u2014which is all-important.\r\n\r\n\u201cI watched today\u2019s press conference closely and agree with many of the things Director Brennan said. He discussed the context of the detention and interrogation program that started shortly after the horrific attacks on 9/11, as well as the vital work being done by the CIA workforce. He is right on both counts.\r\n\r\n\u201cDirector Brennan also acknowledged that the CIA was not prepared to effectively manage this program when it started and that many mistakes were made as it was implemented. I believe that the Intelligence Committee\u2019s report demonstrates these facts beyond dispute, and I am pleased the director announced some of the reforms that have been and will be implemented at the CIA.\r\n\r\n\u201cPerhaps most importantly, Director Brennan stated that the CIA has \u2018not concluded that it was the use of EITs within that program that allowed us to obtain useful information from detainees subjected to them.\u2019 This is a welcome change from the CIA\u2019s position in the past that information was obtained as a direct result of EITs.\r\n\r\n\u201cI disagree that it is \u2018unknowable\u2019 whether information needed to stop terrorist attacks could be obtained from other sources. The report shows that such information in fact was obtained through other means, both traditional CIA human intelligence and from other agencies. Nonetheless, it is an important development that Director Brennan does not attribute counterterrorism successes to coercive interrogations.\r\n\r\n\u201cFinally, I agree with Director Brennan that the CIA must \u2018speak truth to power.\u2019 The president, Congress and other policymakers must get the facts and intelligence assessments without them being colored by policy views or an effort to hide embarrassing facts.\r\n\r\n\u201cAs one who received CIA briefings in 2006 and 2007 about the CIA\u2019s enhanced interrogation techniques, I know that the CIA did not \u2018speak truth to power,\u2019 and that the descriptions of interrogations that were finally provided to the committee did not accurately reflect reality (see pages 446-450 of the executive summary). The report describes numerous examples of inaccurate information being presented within the CIA and to the White House, the Department of Justice, Congress and the public.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe vast majority of CIA\u2019s employees are dedicated and skilled professionals who had nothing to do with detention and interrogation. For them, I am pleased that Director Brennan is attempting to acknowledge past mistakes by the agency in order to focus on current and future missions and make sure that a program like this is never considered again.\u201d\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=ad9ada3d-1dd3-4455-b58f-4ab52d6676e9"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7283990271389484, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}