Mr. Joshua Rubin Dear Mr. Rubin: Thank you for the writing to me about the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report into the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) interrogation methods. I know this issue has divided many Americans and I appreciate you writing to me to express your views. In December 2014, I spoke on the Senate floor in support of the release of the report, which I believe offers a thoughtful account of policies that I hope we will never resort to again. The report forces us to face a difficult truth - that the 'enhanced interrogation techniques' used under the previous administration failed to produce actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies. Worse still, those practices, some of which I believe amounted to torture, damaged our security interest as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world. I know all too well from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners produces more bad intelligence than good. Victims of torture will offer up any information they think their captors will believe in order to stop their suffering. In short, torture produces more misleading information than reliable intelligence. There are those who have argued that the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report will endanger our brave men and women in uniform, and spark outrage and violence in some parts of the Muslim world. Thankfully those fears have so far not been realized. Indeed, much of the report's findings would not have come as a surprise. The entire world has known for over a decade that the U.S. water-boarded prisoners and subjected them to degrading treatment. What we now know is how little practical good was achieved using these interrogation techniques. Sometimes the truth causes us difficulties at home and abroad. But the American people are entitled to it nonetheless. They must know what is being done in their name and judge for themselves whether those actions are justified. To my mind, torture can never be justified. Torture's failure to serve its intended purpose is one reason to oppose its use. The more important reason, however, is that torture is an affront to our values, our honor and who we aspire to be as a nation. Thank you again for writing to me on this matter.