The recently released Senate report details the horrific abuses of the CIA’s brutal torture program. But throughout the government there were heroes who objected to the torture policies and tried to end them.

The CIA’s gruesome practices would never have come to light were it not for those who stood apart and refused to consent to torture and other abuses.

In Guantánamo, while other prosecutors resigned rather than present cases founded on coerced evidence, the Navy’s general counsel Alberto J. Mora took charge. Mora led an effort inside the Department of Defense to oppose coercive interrogation techniques which he argued were ineffective and unlawful.

Others, like Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, were ridiculed and bullied by their bosses for questioning abusive policies. Vandeveld was effectively placed under house arrest.

We can’t avert our eyes from this shameful torture program in order to move forward as a nation. We must pay tribute to the courage and patriotism of those who recognized that torture would harm lives, violate the law, undermine national security, and corrupt important national institutions — including the military.

These heroes belong in our history books. Urge President Obama to honor them as a way of encouraging the best in our public servants, and in all of us.

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