Release the Memos

Conn Carroll / April 23, 2009

When he decided to release selected and redacted documents on terrorist interrogation used by the CIA after 9/11, President Barack Obama said “we should be looking forward and not backwards.” It is impossible to tell whether this statement was calculated or just naive, however, the political firestorm the document release has created is indisputable.

The debate over the rightness of releasing the memos will continue, but the danger of telegraphing operational practices to al-Qaeda is no longer relevant–all the facts about how the interrogators did their job are now available.

What has not been released, however, is all the other relevant information about the program that would help Americans better understand both how it worked and how effective it was. (more…)