Brennan Nomination Used to Push for Release of Torture Report

Human rights advocates want info declassified

Torture foes are seizing on President Barack Obama's nomination of John Brennan for CIA chief to push for the release of a Senate Intelligence Committee report about the agency's use of so-called "enhanced interrogation" techniques like waterboarding during the George W. Bush administration.

Human rights advocates have long hoped to see portions of the 6,000-page report, in the works since 2009, declassified in order to shed light on waterboarding and other abuses of the CIA's interrogation program. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wrote in a letter last month that the report "confirms … that the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners is not only wrong in principle and a stain on our country's conscience, but also an ineffective and unreliable means of gathering intelligence."