Breitbart’s Gorka: CIA Torture Report Release ‘Unseemly,’ ‘Does Not Serve National Interests’

On Thursday’s “Inside Story” on Al Jazeera America, Breitbart National Security Editor Dr. Sebastian Gorka argued the legality of various interrogation methods used by CIA personnel in the post-9/11 era, and condemned the use of the recent Congressional CIA report as a “political football” to attack Republicans.

Speaking with host Ray Suarez and fellow guests Steve Vladeck of the American University School of Law and Diane Marie Amann of University of Georgia Law, Gorka emphasized the legality of operations. While condemning torture methods as immoral and “unproductive professionally,” Gorka doubted the possibility of prosecuting the agents on the ground who performed those acts, given the extensive research and briefing done to both high-ranking CIA officials and Congress on the issue.

“This was not a rogue operation by a loose band of ne’er-do-wells inside the government,” he explained. “This was a programmatic initiative that was reviewed by lawyers inside the Pentagon and DOJ, and which was briefed to the Congress.”

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He doubted the “idea that you are going to have an easy case to prosecute when Congress has been informed on the specific techniques used on individuals.”

In discussing the political theater surrounding the release of the CIA report, Gorka noted that the report is being used as a political football, and released as soon as possible in order to avoid the incoming group of new Republicans who are to take over Congress.

“This unseemly fashion to get it out the door as soon as possible does not serve the national interests,” he concluded of said efforts.

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