TASK DEFINITION: Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
PROBLEM: CIA interrogation report: Democrats want to punish America, blame Bush. In its ideological zeal to punish America , the outgoing Democratically- controlled Senate, plans to make public a report that, according to Fox News will examine "the alleged use of torture by the CIA." Although the 6,000 page full report will remain classified , the 500 page summary is expected to be released to the public in coming days . According to press reports from those who are familiar with the study, it is expected to portray the American intelligence community in the worst possible light . The report's release and details about CIA interrogations that took place a decade ago will endanger Americans abroad today, destroy essential relationships with foreign intelligence communities going forward, and cripple American human intelligence gathering networks for a generation . Put bluntly , Democrats in the Senate are behaving like tenants who got evicted and decide to trash the house on their way out the door . There is nothing to be gained by releasing the report . The CIA's actions in the immediate aftermath of September 11 attacks have long since ceased . Although President Obama has approved release of the report's summary , even Secretary of State John Kerry has warned that the report's release will put Americans and U.S  embassies at risk of retaliation . So why do this now? Perhaps Democrats in Congress think that by excoriating our intelligence community before the entire world they will expiate the sins of the previous administration . Yes, it's another chance it's to blame Bush! This is the apology tour on steroids . According to media reports, the report concludes that we tortured terrorists . These are the same terrorists who blew up the World Trade Center, bombed the Pentagon, and tried to level the U.S  Capitol . These are the same terrorists that today have beheaded Christians, Westerners and, just this past weekend, another American citizen . Think back to the days after September 11 . We were blind about Al Qaeda . Most Americans feared another attack was imminent . And the best legal advice in government said CIA actions to get that information were legal . So CIA officers did what they thought necessary to protect Americans . A decade later we're suddenly castigating them for it . Second ,  the report concludes that the intelligence gathered from CIA's actions wasn't effective . Yet that has been disputed by the very people in the Obama administration who used it to track down Usama bin Laden . To quote highly regarded former CIA Director Gen  Michael Hayden,"it is inconceivable to believe that three different CIA directors, and three different Deputy CIA directors, conspired over a seven year period to lie about the program's effectiveness . Third ,  there is a rule in foreign policy like the one in medicine . First ,  do no harm . Public release of this report will do immeasurable harm . It will encourage terrorists around the world to launch revenge attacks . It will cause foreign intelligence agencies to clam up and no longer cooperate with US intelligence for fear that their sources and method will be blown . It will cause every American intelligence officer to go into the defensive crouch -- don't stick your head out to protect America because years later somebody in government who wants to score political points will chop it off . Finally ,  take a lesson from history . We did this once before, in the 1970's , when presidential-hopeful Senator Frank Church launched a widespread investigation of the CIA . It didn't work , Senator Church's presidential aspirations never got off the ground . But his handiwork crippled American intelligence gathering for a generation . American agents overseas were killed , foreign intelligence agencies stopped sharing intelligence with us , our own human networks collapsed , and CIA officers played it safe and stopped thinking outside the box . This was one of the reasons a generation later we never knew about a bunch of Islamic extremists in a cave in Afghanistan plotting to take down the Twin Towers . Releasing the report to the public will do considerable harm to our efforts to gather essential intelligence about those hoping to do us harm . It will be a self-inflicted wound . The next time we are caught unprepared it won' t just be with 747s flying into buildings it could be with weapons too terrible to contemplate .

SOLUTION: the outgoing Democratically- controlled Senate, plans to make public a report that, according to Fox News will examine "the alleged use of torture by the CIA."

PROBLEM: The Iranian opportunity. The instability and chaos sweeping across the Arab world today represents both a threat and an opportunity for Iran . Instability in Yemen, Libya, Syria and Iraq are case-in-point examples that Iran can realise its short and long-term objectives to become the region's main hegemon . Surrounded by countries with significant Shia minorities, Iran seeks to cultivate the image of "protector state" for these populations . And eventually, Iran could become the "core country" in this hotly contested region . Toward this end, Iran has stirred Shia-Sunni divisions, creating sectarian identities for the various clashing groups . In the case of Yemen, this was done within the borders of one country where Iran contrived to create a distinct Shia identity for the Houthis who ended up taking control over the course of the past few months . The Iranian strategy is focused on building a new political model in the region - one that relies on Iran's "centrality" through which it can exercise power and influence both on the regional and international levels . Especially after the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Iran has been keen to develop working relations with the West and the US (particularly with regard to "fighting terrorism" - as it had done before in Afghanistan) . It is also eager to play a similar role in Iraq . This Iranian eagerness, however, cannot be isolated from the larger vision . This vision sees such cooperation as advancing the Iranian model of emphasising its geopolitical centrality for Shiism, as well as its hegemonic desires over the region, including the Arab Sunni states . To become the centre of gravity of the Middle East, Iran needs to amplify its role as both a protector and hegemon for its much weaker and unstable Arab neighbours . These neighbours would be relegated within the Iranian model to the status of periphery states . To do that, Iran uses its old revolutionary rhetoric and slogans to describe its brand of Islam as "authentic and original" while describing pro-West Sunni Arab states as having an "American-Islam" , which it presents as an illegitimate form of Islam . In his Washington Post op-ed last September, "Time to Engage", Rouhani outlined the Iranian objectives and the key areas in which Iran can cooperate with the US and the West . Although Rouhani laid out the Iranian strategic perspective and the parameters through which Iran can work and cooperate with the West , there was an important point, which he left unsaid . He was essentially saying that the US must recognise the failure of its old policies, especially in the region, and at the same time tacitly acknowledged that Iran had made mistakes in dealing with the US during the past eight years . Nevertheless ,  he opened the door for US-Iranian cooperation on combating terrorism and emphasised the Iranian role in solving the region's thorniest problems, such as the Palestinian cause and the conflict with Israel . View of superiority . Current Iranian discourse - political and cultural - revolves around advancing the view of superiority of the Iranian race, Shia Islam, and Iranian culture . Such discourse focuses on the uniqueness of the Iranian race as one that is steeped in civilisation, juxtaposed with the Arabs who represent, according to this view, the "other", i.e  less civilised . In realpolitik terms, amid the instability and chaos plaguing Arab states, Iran presents itself as the alternative power to fill the vacuum in the region . From the Iranian perspective, the US has failed to solve many of the international crises and in some cases, it has created them . Iran, in this respect, is positioning itself as a rising power that will replace the US as the dominant power in the region . Echoing such discourse, Kazem Sajjadpour, an advisor on Strategic Affairs to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran said, in Persian, during his participation in the roundtable discussion on the website Shia News Association, that while the Arab world suffers from fragmentation and strategic paralysis - while under the influence of western powers- Iran enjoys territorial integrity and cohesiveness, and is endowed with strategic resources . All of these are factors that could make Iran the new rising power in the region . Indeed ,  Iran is making the case that the entire Arab world revolves around it - and cannot survive without it .

SOLUTION: The Iranian strategy is focused on building a new political model in the region - one that relies on Iran's "centrality" through which it can exercise power and influence both on the regional and international levels To become the centre of gravity of the Middle East, Iran needs to amplify its role as both a protector and hegemon for its much weaker and unstable Arab neighbours

PROBLEM: The Guardian view on counter-terror cooperation: walking the line. Ten days after the Paris attacks, the security repercussions continue . Yesterday Sir John Sawers, recently retired as head of MI6, called for renewed cooperation between intelligence agencies and internet companies . Meanwhile, European foreign ministers met to strengthen anti-terrorism coordination within the EU, and called for a stronger alliance with Arab states in combating jihadi networks . The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said:"The threat is not only the one we faced in Paris, but it is spreading in other parts of the world, starting from Muslim countries." Better coordination is undoubtedly needed to foil further attacks in Europe , where Islamist terrorists have struck in three capitals - Madrid, London and now Paris . Anti-terrorism raids in France and Belgium confirm that the threat continues . The Paris killers had links with networks across the Middle East, including in Yemen . So the need to share intelligence to counter groups that themselves operate and communicate easily across borders cannot be disputed . A further illustration of this came when an Algerian national appeared before a Greek prosecutor on Monday over a possible link to a foiled Islamist plot to attack police in Belgium . It is logical for Europe to reach out to Arab countries . The first victims of violent jihadism are, after all, to be found in the Arab world . In the Middle East and north Africa, terrorists have targeted Muslims first and foremost . It came as little surprise that the Arab League secretary general, Nabil el-Araby - who has recently met Ms Mogherini- immediately declared his organisation's readiness to help European partners in dealing with a danger that spans many regions . It is, nevertheless, vital that such cooperation avoids the mistakes of the past . This is not a war of civilisations . It is a fight against a violent sectarian ideology that finds breeding grounds in Europe's disenfranchised communities and in the killing fields of the Middle East . Ms Mogherini is correct to state that this is "not an issue between Europe or the west and Islam" . But this effort must give proper priority to precautions and standards that have, in the past, been all too often trampled upon . The global war on terror proclaimed in the aftermath of 9/11 involved measures that violated fundamental rights and international law . Western cooperation with repressive Arab states involved rendition flights and the outsourcing of torture . Many regimes used repressive methods and emergency legislation to crush dissent as much as to track terrorists . Last month this system of abuses was detailed in the damning US Senate report on the secret CIA programme that ran detention sites and organised the transfer of detainees with the cooperation of partner countries , some of which were in the Arab and Muslim world . Calling for an alliance between Europe and Arab countries in a renewed fight against terrorism is important . But it should not permit any amnesia about where this has led in the past decade . In the Middle East and north Africa, many regimes continue to show complete disregard for basic human rights and legal procedures - as the recent flogging of a Saudi blogger has illustrated . Only one country, Tunisia, can claim to have reached some form of stable democracy in the wake of the Arab spring . Others are run by despots or by military juntas, as in Egypt, or have been caught in a spiral of anarchy, as in Libya . Human rights activists and civil society struggle to do their work under immense pressure . There are few checks and balances . Nor is there sufficient oversight of security forces conducting anti-terrorism efforts . So , as Europeans reach out to these regimes , they must beware of the pitfalls . An alliance with authoritarian powers, made blindly or naively, can too easily involve the abandonment of values, a dangerous sense of impunity and even indifference towards the worst abuses . It can also backfire , because repression in some Arab states has provoked fresh discontent and radicalisation . All these things have happened in recent years . This time, therefore, Europe must rigorously uphold its standards as it embarks on this new era of cooperation . This time, the price of mutual assistance must not be a blind eye or a guilty silence about unacceptable abuses .

SOLUTION:
Ten days after the Paris attacks, the security repercussions continue