Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/senators-examine-use-of-torture-on-detainees Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Kwame Holman reports on a Senate hearing examining harsh interrogation methods used on some detainees. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. KWAME HOLMAN: A Senate Judiciary Subcommittee today embarked on a series of hearings into allegations of torture authorized by the Bush administration against alleged terrorists.It was Congress's first formal response to the Obama administration's release of Bush administration memos that gave legal sanction to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island is chairman. SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, D-R.I.: Winston Churchill said, "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." The truth of our country's descent into torture is not precious. It is noxious; it is sordid. KWAME HOLMAN: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was the only Republican to participate in the hearing. He opposed the harsh tactics, but said Bush administration officials had done nothing illegal. SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: They saw the law many times as a nicety that we couldn't afford, so they took a very aggressive interpretation of what the law would allow, and that came back to bite us. It always does, but that's not a crime.