Alfred McCoy, historian and author of the books Torture and Impunity and A Question of Torture, interprets the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture within the broader history of United States’ conflicted relationship with torture. In conclusion, he writes: “Despite its rich fund of hard-won detail, the Senate report has, at best, produced a neutral outcome, a draw in this political contest over impunity. Over the past forty years, there have been a half-dozen similar scandals over torture that have followed a familiar cycle—revelation, momentary sensation, vigorous rebuttal, and then oblivion. Unless we inscribe the lessons from this Senate report deeply into the country’s collective memory, then some future crisis might prompt another recourse to torture that will do even more damage to this country’s moral leadership.” Read his entire essay at: