By Rachel Lippmann, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Missouri's two Senators appear split on whether or not the Obama administration should release information about intelligence gathered by the use of harsh interrogation tactics.
The administration released a Congressional report Monday that gives more detail about the techniques military interrogators used, which had approval from high-ranking officials in the Bush administration.
Republican Senator Kit Bond echoed calls by former Vice President Dick Cheney to declassify details about how the techniques kept the country safe.
"More than half of the important information on planned terror attacks and on the structure of Al Qaeda came from these interrogations," Bond said. He also blasted Obama for seemingly reversing course on the prosecution of former Justice Department officials who developed the legal authorization for the attacks.
McCaskill, however, said she needed more information about the gathered intelligence before deciding if it should be released.
"Without knowing what's in the documents, I think it would be wildly irresponsible for me to call for them to be released," she said. "This is obviously a sensitive area, I think there is a strong argument on both sides as to whether the initial documents should have been released."
McCaskill supported the decision to release the memos about the tactics.