Americans needed to confront the measures that were taken to coerce information from terrorist suspects after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Only with an honest assessment of the CIA's actions can Congress set clear policies to avoid future abuses. That is why the decision to release the executive summary of the "torture report" compiled by the Senate Intelligence Committee was the right one.

In the months after the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000, the United States faced the real threat that another massive attack could follow. It is understandable why the CIA was given the task of doing all it could to extract information from captured suspects with ties to al-Qaida. But the "enhanced interrogation techniques" went much too far, violating the CIA's own protocols, international human rights standards and our American ideals.

In addition to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, the report documents that prisoners were subjected to ice baths, force fed through the rectum, shackled in painful positions and subjected to loud noise to prevent sleep for days on end. These are forms of torture, not interrogation, and the United States should be better than that.

"Our enemies act without conscience. We must not," said Sen. John McCain, subjected to torture while a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Though it is subject to dispute from the CIA, the report concludes that the techniques provided no information that kept Americans safe from another attack. This was of no surprise to Sen. McCain.

"I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it. I know they will say whatever they think their torturers want them to say if they believe it will stop their suffering," the Republican from Arizona said on the Senate floor.

If there is one area in which the report comes up short, it is the failure to acknowledge that Congress failed in its oversight responsibilities as well. During intelligence briefings, lawmakers, some who are now criticizing the CIA, were told that exceptional measures were being taken to try to gain information. If there was ignorance about the details, it was to a degree willful ignorance.

The unsaid message at the time seemed to be, "Keep America safe, we don't need to know the particulars."