The most shocking part of that intelligence report

As gruesome as it was, I don’t think it will shock many people that the CIA was capable of using torture in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

What is shocking is that it was outsourced to a couple of private contractors and that the details were kept from the FBI, from Congress, from Secretary of State Powell, from President Bush, and even from Vice President Cheney – making a mockery of the Constitution’s fundamental principle of civilian control of the machinery of government.

Tuesday night, CBS’s Scott Pelley played part of a 2007 interview with then-CIA Director George Tenet who denied that what the CIA did was torture.

“We don’t torture people,” he said.

But he also sincerely believed “enhanced techniques” were necessary.

“I’ve just lived through 3,000 people dying, 3,000 people died, friends died. Now, I’m going to sit back and then everybody says ‘You idiots don’t know how to connect the dots.'”

Well now, Americans have a new set of dots to connect, and they show how, in the name of national security, a government agency decided to defy civilian control.

There are members of Congress who still don’t think we’re entitled to know any of this.

But if the word “freedom” means anything, it certainly includes the right to know what the government does in our name. In fact, I remember a leader who once said freedom was the key to national security.

“Everywhere freedom takes hold, terror will retreat,” said George W. Bush.

I’d like to think that’s still true.