A former Pentagon official under President Reagan says the decision by President Obama to release previously secret memos about the U.S. military's interrogation techniques is problematic for the nation's future.
K.T. McFarland, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense, said, "The problem here is you're talking about American security.
"Transparency is fine," she said, on issues such as the budget. "It's another thing about security."
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But the arguments over the release "missed the bigger picture, [specifically] what are we doing to protect the American people?"
Her comments came in an interview with Greg Corombos of Radio America/WND, and the audio of the discussion is embedded here:
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In the aftermath of Obama's decision, former Vice President Dick Cheney has called on the White House to make public additional documents showing that the interrogations yielded crucial results for U.S. national security.
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"One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort," Cheney said.
He made the comments during an exclusive interview with the Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity.
McFarland said the problem is Americans cannot fully evaluate the information, because much still has been withheld. One expert says the interrogation techniques work; another says they don't.
"If torture is going to prevent the deaths of American citizens, we have to use it," she said.
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