Republicans call on administration to end investigation into CIA interrogators

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) on Thursday called on the Obama administration's Justice Department to end its investigation into CIA interrogation techniques in light of the fact that the CIA has said its techniques helped develop intelligence used to find Osama bin Laden.

"The reason I bring this up is this administration has said in the past that certain types of enhanced interrogation techniques equaled torture," Lungren said on the House floor. "I do not believe that to be true, and for that to remain on the record subjects those men and women … to the cloud of prosecution in the future and the accusation that they involved themselves in forms of conduct that would be defined as torture by some of the highest officials in the United States.

"When we have the CIA director indicate that we did receive information as a result of some of these activities … it seems to me that we are duty-bound to clear up the record, and to thank those men and women, not condemn them," Lungren added.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) also said on the floor that the Obama administration should accept the Bush administration's finding that techniques such as waterboarding are not torture.