MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript:

Interview

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SCHULTZ: And let`s not forget America`s CIA Director George Tenet was given the presidential medal of freedom, little did we know at the time he as in charge of an organization according to this report that was running a rogue organization through the CIA. Zubaydah was tortured. This report says 83 times for two and a half weeks straight.

He was a planner for 9/11. I would venture to say that most Americans probably don`t care that he was tortured saying that we lost over 3,000 Americans on that day back in September 11th, 2001. But the fact is, that we don`t torture as a country because it`s against who we are. We don`t torture because it`s against international law and we don`t torture because we don`t want our people to get tortured. Now where do we go?

Get your cellphones out. I want to know what you think tonight on this issue. Tonight`s question, do you think this senate intelligence report will make America stronger or weaker?

Text A, for stronger, text B for weaker, to 67622, go to our blog, leave at comment at ed.msnbc.com, we`ll bring you the results later on in the show.

For more, let me bring in Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Islands. Senator, good to have you with us tonight on this very crucial topic. And I want to go right to the accuracy of this and how it is being debunked by former administration officials.

Do you believe that this report is accurate and true?

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, (D) RHODE ISLANDS, Absolutely, positively,
ertainly. The authors of this report, the members of the committee and the staff went through millions of documents. They were operating off of life, e-mail traffic happening as these investigations and interrogations went forward.

The amount of information that they worked with was very strong. It is massively footnoted and backstopped. Indeed the CIA tried to take that apart and came up with actually one factual correction.

So, the talk that`s happening is really just the continuation of the spin campaign to support the program. But in terms of the serious one-on-one, look at the report and looking for factual errors, not there.

SCHULTZ: Senator, do you think this country did the right thing but not going down this road earlier in seeking prosecutions if laws were broken?

WHITEHOUSE: Well, that`s a difficult conversation for me to have because I was not in the grand jury that investigated this. I was not part of the persecutive team. One has to have faith in the system. I know the Prosecutor John Durham who worked on this. I think he`s a very legitimate, credible, solid person. He did not go into the tank, I do not believe.

So, I think you have to trust the process at this point that there was no charge to be brought.

SCHULTZ: So, how does America make this right as you see it? Many people think that this is going to damage our standing of the world. We push for human rights. We push for social justice and we`ve got our own issues on our own soil in that regard. But clearly, with 38,000 footnotes in this report and as detailed as it is, how do we make it right?

WHITEHOUSE: I think this report is a long step towards making it right. It`s really important that Americans know what was done in their name and they should be aware of the context of this which is that we have actually prosecuted American soldiers for waterboarding during the Philippines insurrection. We prosecuted Japanese soldiers for waterboarding Americans during World War II.

We can`t be a credible leader of this world if we have a double standard for ourselves and that`s just, you know, it`s just wrong. A lot was broken and bends out of shape trying to protect this torture program and we need to set all of that right as well.

SCHULTZ: Who`s at the root of it in your opinion Senator? Is this just some rogue agents that went of on their own because they were upset that the country got hit or do you think that they took orders from the White House to do whatever it takes to get information and it got out of hand. How would you describe what you think unfold it?

WHITEHOUSE: I think there was a White House connection here. When you look at the way in which the rules over at the Department of Justice were written up in a way that allowed this torture program to proceed, ignoring United States circuit court case law that called waterboarding torture. It really looks like over at the Department of Justice, they cooked the books to allow the program to go forward.

The CIA and the Department of Justice and the White House I think together would have to have done that. They deliberately kept the circle that saw the legal report to a very small group so there is no peer review and people who are not in on the deal didn`t say, "What, that`s crazy."

So, there are lots of signs that this was maneuvered in a way that was aware of the wrongfulness of the program both in the lead up to it and during its continuation and in trying to justify it afterwards. There`s kind of a cover up around this as well as the program itself.

SCHULTZ: So Senator, everyone involved walks scot-free. How does that sit with you?

WHITEHOUSE: Well, not great, but I do think something very important was done in getting this report out. The truth really matters in America.

SCHULTZ: All right, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, great to have you with us on the Ed Show. I appreciate your time tonight sir.

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