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.

Q: Punishment, not apology after CIA torture report. What a dark day for the United States . Five years and nine months after Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kit Bond, the chair and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced a review of the CIA's detention and interrogation programme in the so-called "war on terror", the 500-page executive summary of that report has been made publicly available . Its conclusions are shocking . As Feinstein explained in an interview with the Los Angeles Times at the weekend,"We have to get this report out. Anybody who reads this is going to never let this happen again." Let us hope so - and let us also hope that senior officials in the Bush administration, as well as senior CIA personnel, will eventually be held accountable for their actions . The CIA's torture programme, initiated almost immediately after the 9/11 attacks, remained a closely guarded secret for many years . An early revelation was a June 2004 leak of a memo which purported to redefine torture so that it could be used by the CIA . The memo was written by John Yoo, a lawyer in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) , who was close to Dick Cheney . The CIA's "black sites" in Europe were not publicly exposed until November 2005 . The Bush administration still refused to openly acknowledge the programme until September 2006 , when then President George W Bush announced that, with the arrival of 14 "high-value detainees" at Guantanamo from various "black sites", the programme he had denied the existence of until that time had now closed down . That statement, we subsequently learned, was not entirely true , as a few other prisoners arrived at Guantanamo from CIA custody in 2007 and 2008 , but the torture report provides conclusive proof . "By March 2006," the report states,"the programme was operating in only one country. The CIA last used its enhanced interrogation techniques on November 8, 2007. The CIA did not hold any detainees after April 2008." After the arrival of the "high-value detainees" at Guantanamo, numerous attempts were made to pierce the veil of secrecy that surrounded the programme . In 2007, Swiss Senator Dick Marty published an influential report for the Council of Europe about secret prisons and rendition in Europe . In February 2008, CIA Director Michael Hayden admitted that three "high-value detainees" had been subjected to waterboarding . In December 2008, the Senate Armed Services Committee published a powerful report about how the policies for dealing with prisoners in the "war on terror" had developed - including detailed analysis of how the US military's SERE programme (intended to train US personnel to resist torture if captured by a hostile enemy) had been reverse-engineered for the "war on terror" . In April 2009, harrowing interviews with the 14 "high-value detainees", conducted by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, were leaked , and in August 2009 an internal CIA report from 2004 into the agency's detention and interrogation policies after 9/11 was released containing details of how one prisoner, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (one of the three men waterboarded, along with Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad), was physically abused and threatened with a gun and power drill while hooded at a "black site" in Thailand . In 2010 I wrote a detailed analysis of the secret detention programme for a UN study , in which I sought to ascertain the identities of the 94 "ghost prisoners" in CIA custody - including 28 subjected to "enhanced interrogation"  - who were referred to in a memo from 2005 by OLC lawyer Steven G Bradbury that was released by the Obama administration in April 2009 . Another major report, by the Constitution Project, was published in 2013 . And yet , although some of the gruesome facts about the torture programme were known , the Senate Intelligence Committee's report provides far more . In its "Findings and Conclusions", for example, the report states :. There are many more examples . The report states :. In addition , "sleep deprivation involved keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours" , and although some "experienced disturbing hallucinations", in at least two cases the CIA continued its abuse . These examples - and many more in the summary - demonstrate clearly the committee's conclusion that the interrogations "were brutal and far worse than the CIA represented to policymakers and others" . Perhaps more importantly, however, the committee also concludes that torture was "not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees", that the CIA made "inaccurate claims" about the "effectiveness" of the programme in an attempt to justify it and that it led to friction with other agencies that endangered national security, as well as providing false statements that led to costly and worthless wild goose chases . The report also concludes that non-approved techniques were used widely , and that "[a]t least 17 detainees were subjected to CIA enhanced interrogation techniques without authorisation from CIA headquarters", and that "multiple detainees were subjected to techniques that were applied in ways that diverged from the specific authorisation, or were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques by interrogators who had not been authorised to use them" . The committee was also critical of the central role played by two contract psychologists from the SERE programme , even though neither of them "had any experience as an interrogator, nor did either have specialised knowledge of al-Qaeda, a background in counterterrorism, or any relevant cultural or linguistic expertise" . The committee also concluded that Steven Bradbury's numbers were wrong, and that the CIA "detained at least 119 individuals, of whom at least 39 were subjected to the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques" . Moreover ,  of these 119 "at least 26 were wrongfully held and did not meet the detention standard" in the still-secret Bush administration memorandum establishing the programme in September 2001 . In the days and weeks to come, there will be concerted efforts by the CIA and by former Bush administration officials to defend their actions , but the report makes clear that any kind of defence is untenable . Crimes were committed, authorised at the highest level of the US government , and , although Obama came into office in 2009 expressing "a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards" , that is not acceptable . The Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report - all 6,700 pages of it, costing $40m and involving an analysis of more than six million pages of classified documents - must be the trigger not just for an airing of apologies, but for those who instigated and authorised the torture programme to be held accountable - up to and including President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney .

A: The Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report - all 6,700 pages of it, costing $40m and involving an analysis of more than six million pages of classified documents - must be the trigger not just for an airing of apologies, but for those who instigated and authorised the torture programme to be held accountable - up to and including President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney
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Q: Cameron would rather look 'frit' than face a bashing from Farage. Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage have each written to David Cameron saying they are willing to have TV election debates even if he doesn't take part . Cameron's people insist he won't come on unless the Greens are there too . Listen carefully and there is a faint creaking noise, the sound of a politician trying to wind back the great clock of politics . In Cameron's case, he wants it back to the happy days before Gordon Brown conceded the prime ministerial veto on TV debates . It might just work . Rule one in any prime minister's handbook is never give up an advantage . In an election, that's what being prime minister is - an advantage . That's why it took 12 general elections between most voters having access to a television in 1964 and the first (and last?) television debate in 2010 . Yet debates are as old as politics itself , and putting them on TV has had that "well, obviously" feel to it ever since the first US presidential debate in 1960 . It must have helped perpetuate the brand, that first contest , for it was between the two men whose lives and deaths shadowed the rest of the American century: the beautiful young upstart John F Kennedy and the so much less telegenic, even rather sweaty, Richard Nixon . Cameron's people have been trying to back out of TV debates in 2015 almost since the lights went down on the last debate of the last election campaign . It has been a carefully played, inch-by-inch retreat covered by protestations of enthusiasm, framed in the context of a wider concern for the state of democracy . Last August he ruminated on the way they sucked the oxygen out of the last campaign (and poured a good deal of it into the Lib Dems' camp) . Now he says he is standing up for the right of the Greens, excluded for- according to Ofcom - not being big enough . Questioning the value of the debates is easy . The doyen of electoral coverage, David Dimbleby, who chaired the BBC session, said later that he thought they didn't let in as much light as when politicians were made to face the voters on their own in the kind of Question Time event that, as it happens, he also chairs . There' s no doubt that accidental encounters with ordinary people- Brown's "bigoted woman", or Margaret Thatcher being confronted over the sinking of the Belgrano - have earned a place in history as moments of truth that have told a bigger story . There is something rather odd about the"one of these people will be prime minister" hype before a debate that has been widened to include Farage . But , of course, the debates aren't about debating in the traditional sense of the word , even when they are between two very different versions of the future , as they were in Scotland . What really mattered in those brutal encounters between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling was the extraordinary depth of Darling's antipathy to Salmond and, for a while, the unexpected haplessness of Salmond under pressure . That first debate will always be remembered as the moment the rabbit bit the car . All the same, Cameron's opponents cannot take victory for granted . They accuse him of running scared . The Twittersphere throbs with shouts of "frit" . It is a charge that might have a price for the Tory leader . It will certainly disconcert his less politically savvy supporters . But mainly it will just confirm the prejudices of those who were never going to vote Conservative anyway . What it does prove, if proof were needed, is that the Tories are running a core vote strategy . If the broadcasters find the nerve to go ahead anyway, which is a punt in itself , an empty podium would not look good . But try to imagine the view from the perspective of a Tory strategist : the bill for looking frit is tiny compared with the enduring burden of being savaged by Farage . For Cameron, the strategist would reckon, it would be like being assessed for a job by someone who had watched you in conversation with the pub bore . Putting the two together is on a par with divorce proceedings where the party who has walked out stands and shouts a string of excuses unconnected with the facts in a way that is somehow illogically appealing . Just say you've gone off him! And ,  of course, that's why it must be made to happen . Let's hear Cameron talking to both wings of his party at once . And just as importantly, please, please let's have the Greens in the room too . It really would be an outrage not to .

A: Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage have each written to David Cameron saying they are willing to have TV election debates Cameron's people insist he won't come on
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Q: Russia's next acquisition. It is no secret that Russia views the South Caucasus as being in its natural sphere of influence . In light of Russia's annexation of Crimea, and on the back of Moscow's recent treaties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgians have legitimate reasons to believe that Russian activity in their country will only increase in 2015 . Consequently ,  many are keeping a close eye on the Georgian province of Samtskhe-Javakheti- a majority ethnically Armenian region located just three hours' drive from the nation's capital city of Tbilisi . Causing instability in Samtskhe-Javakheti would achieve two goals for Moscow . First ,  it would further dismember the territorial integrity of Georgia . The Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are already under Russian occupation . By some accounts they are closer than ever to being annexed by Moscow . An independent Samtskhe-Javakheti, or one under Russian influence, would divide Georgia down the middle . Armenian separatism in Samtskhe-Javakheti might not be as vocal as it was only a few years ago ; but there is still a fear that Moscow could easily reenergise separatist movements in the region . Secondly, and more importantly for Russia, bringing the region under Moscow's influence would make a land corridor between Russia and Armenia, via South Ossetia, one step closer . This is important because Russia maintains a sizeable military presence in Armenia . The bulk of the Russian force is based in the city of Gyumri and consists of approximately 5,000 soldiers and dozens of fighter planes and attack helicopters . Russia has long had the difficult challenge of supplying these forces , especially since Georgia and Turkey refuse transit rights . This has left a reliance on Iran , which for obvious reasons, is not ideal for Russia . It is not only for Russia that Samtskhe-Javakheti is strategically important, but also for Europe . The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the South Caucasus Pipeline, carrying oil and gas respectively from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, passes through the province . As the possibility of more Central Asian oil and gas finding its way to Europe becomes likely , these pipelines bypassing Russia will become a vital part of Europe's energy security . In addition ,  the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway, which is due to open later this year, passes through Samtskhe-Javakheti . It is expected that this rail line will eventually transport 3 million passengers and over 15 million tons of freight each year . There is a perfect storm brewing in the region and if Russia wanted to exploit the situation in Samtskhe-Javakheti it could not ask for better timing than now . First is the fact that many Javakheti Armenians have Russian sympathies . Until its closure in 2007, the Russian military base there was the single biggest source of employment . It has also been reportedthat Moscow is issuing Russian passports to ethnic Armenians living in the region . This in itself is telling ; Russia issued passports to Abkhazians and South Ossetians just before its 2008 invasion of Georgia and also issued passports to Crimeans ahead of the annexation of Crimea last year . But Russia is only part of the problem . Many of the grievances Javakheti Armenians have are a result of poor policy making by the central government in Tbilisi . Many Javakheti Armenians feel that their culture and language are discriminated against . There has been a decrease in the quality of education among the Javakheti Armenian population . The bilingual education program of teaching in both Georgian and Armenian has been described as a "total failure" because there are not enough qualified teachers with proficiency in both languages . Unemployment is high in Samtskhe-Javakheti and future economic prospects in the region look bleak . Many Javakheti Armenians travel to Russia or Armenia for work . Economy strained . Thanks to the drop in the value of the Russian ruble - almost one-third of its value in the past year  - remittances have also decreased . The unusually harsh winter in the region is placing a further strain on economic activity . Then there is the issue of citizenship and immigration . Many Javakheti Armenians do not have Georgian citizenship . Instead ,  many hold Armenian passports because finding seasonal work in Armenia and Russia is easier this way . Until recently, Armenian citizens were allowed to live and work inside Georgia without any special authorisation as long as they crossed the border back into Armenia at least once a year . Last September this changed . Now Javakheti Armenians without Georgian citizenship can only stay in Georgia for three months at a time . Longer term residency permits are costly . These policies breed animosity and form a perfect storm that could easily be exploited by Russia . It does not have to be this way . Sensible policies can be pursued by Tbilisi to address the legitimate grievances of the Javakheti Armenians . The West can make it clear to Russia that further meddling in Georgia's domestic affairs could lead to additional sanctions . The last thing the South Caucasus needs is another sectarian conflict .

A:
It is no secret that Russia views the South Caucasus as being in its natural sphere of influence In light of Russia's annexation of Crimea, and on the back of Moscow's recent treaties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgians have legitimate reasons to believe that Russian activity in their country will only increase in 2015
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