Knowing of your interest in defense and national security issues, I wanted to discuss President Obama's recent decision to declassify Top Secret documents that contained highly sensitive information about the interrogation methods used by the CIA, discussed in thorough detail their legal justifications, and detailed the necessary conditions placed on their use to ensure that they were utilized in a lawful and proper manner.  I believe it is inexcusable for President Obama to unveil the highly secret details about the interrogation techniques used by the CIA without also disclosing how these methods brought forth extremely valuable intelligence that undermined al Qaeda's terrorist agenda and saved American lives.  The President's selective revelations about this successful program tell an incomplete story and only serve to undermine morale in our intelligence community.  In doing so, President Obama has continued his policy of showing our enemies the playbook of America's methods for fighting the Global War on Terror.  Now that he has disclosed the program's details, he should unveil its successes and allow the American people to decide whether they were necessary and proper in the wake of al Qaeda's destruction on September 11, 2001.

This decision to declassify the CIA memos continues a troubling pattern that includes his previous decisions to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, suspend the military tribunals of suspected terrorists, and restrict future interrogations to those included in the U.S. Army Field Manual.  I'm deeply concerned that these decisions have collectively made our nation less safe.  The War on Terror is by no means over and adopting a more relaxed approach to the serious threat we continue to face will endanger the lives of Americans.  I believe it is absolutely critical that we remember the lessons of September 11 and prevent a return of our intelligence community to a detrimental posture of timidity and weakness.