Americans deserve the five “Ws” when it comes to the Central Intelligence Agency — and ultimately our nation’s — use of torture tactics.

We must know “who” knew about this and “what” they know. “When” did they know it. “Why” was this allowed to continue, despite clearly violating international treaties and “where” is the accountability?

More and more information continues to surface about the tactics our government used against prisoners. Democrats want to deflect all the blame to the then-Republican led presidential administration.

No one wants to admit exactly what was known and who knew it.

The American people deserve answers on this. And anyone who is found guilty of condoning these acts of torture should be held accountable.

Some will say that during war we must take drastic measures. But at what cost? War should never be a justification for the same behavior we are fighting against.

There hasn’t been any evidence that torturing these prisoners helped provide any credible intelligence information.

We shouldn’t sacrifice our humanity and the principles that set us apart from al-Qaida in the first place.

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, “Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.”

That is a warning that many of our elected leaders — Republicans, Democrats and all of those in between — appear to have failed to follow.

Now we must get answers to determine how far we have fallen.