On Tuesday, December 9, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report discussing the harsh torture techniques employed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on its prisoners. This report has caused controversy because of its cost and accusations that the torture program has been mismanaged, unnecessarily brutal and ineffective.

According to ABC News, the report cost a whopping $40 million and took five years to compile. Dianne Feinstein, senator and chairwoman of the Select Intelligence Committee, explained why the report was so expensive.

“Rather than provide documents for the committee to review in its own secure Senate office, as is standard practice, the CIA insisted on establishing a separate leased facility and a stand-alone computer network for committee use,” Feinstein said in a statement on Wednesday.

Feinstein added that the CIA was very careful, reviewing every document that was examined for the report multiple times before handing the documents over to the committee. However, the price of repeatedly reviewing the documents added up because the CIA hired so many people to review the materials and even rented a building separate from the office of the Select Intelligence Committee.

Additionally, it has been alleged that the actual torture program was mismanaged by the CIA- specifically that the CIA misled the president and Congress about the exact nature of the brutality that the prisoners in the program endured. Some critics have also said the techniques did not even produce valuable information that could have been used to prevent terrorist attacks, and that the information could have been obtained through less violent methods. Since the program was first implemented after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in order to prevent future terrorist attacks, this was a serious allegation.

CIA director John Brennan directly countered the claim, saying that the torture of prisoners who were suspected members of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda did yield valuable information that prevented attacks and saved lives.  He insisted the information obtained has helped to develop the CIA’s understanding of, and efforts against, al-Qaeda.

An article by ABC News also said that Brennan went on to defended the overall torture program in a news conference on Thursday, Dec. 11 but added that some of the interrogation practices used in the program were “abhorrent.”

“Reading this report from the Committee raises serious questions about the information that I was given at the time, and the impression I had at the time,” Brennan said. “Now I have to determine, based on that information, as well as what CIA says, what the truth is.”

According to CNN, President Obama took a stance different from Brennan’s and did not look favorably upon the methods used by the torture program.

“I think overall, the men and women at the CIA do a really tough job and they do it really well,” Obama said Tuesday in an interview with Telemundo. “But in the aftermath of 9/11, in the midst of a national trauma, and uncertainty as to whether these attacks were gonna repeat themselves, what’s clear is that the CIA set up something very fast without a lot of forethought to what the ramifications might be.”

Junior Mnelik Belete felt differently, and asserted that the program was not unnecessarily brutal, because its actions towards those who were directly and indirectly involved in 9/11 were warranted.

“The CIA’s [program] necessary [at the time.] The CIA had to do anything in the service of our nation they could do to prevent another 9/11 event and Al-Qaeda from pursuing its violent agenda,” he said.

Belete also pointed out that the Bush administration, which was in power when the program began, as well as Democratic lawmakers, were briefed on the program. Both were aware of the techniques used, but allowed the CIA to continue using them.

The bottom line? Not only is some of the controversy caused by partisan tensions, with Democrats and Republicans arguing over the accuracy of the report, but some of the controversy is also caused by the actual contents of the report- namely the interrogation methods of the program.