I went to Senator Cantwell's website to see if she has posted her position on the Torture Bill. She has not.
The only reference to torture on her website is a 2003 statement supporting U.S. troops that mentions torture under Saddam Hussein:

Instead, I found a press release entitled: "Cantwell Calls National Intelligence Estimate Troubling."

Included in Cantwell statement is a reference to the NIE's statement that terrorist threats will become more diverse.

Here is the press release:

http://cantwell.senate.gov/...

Cantwell Calls National Intelligence Estimate Troubling

Wednesday, September 27,2006

WASHINGTON, DC - Wednesday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) issued the following statement on the National Intelligence Estimate:

"The key judgments in the National Intelligence Estimate are troubling. It is especially disturbing to hear that terrorist threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad may become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide.

"We need a new direction in Iraq to end rising violence. The president needs a plan to help the Iraqis reach a political settlement of their differences and to achieve more progress in taking control of their own security. The United States should be leading international efforts to promote Iraqi stability, so that Iraq can no longer be considered a `cause celebre for jihadists.'"

Cantwell may be referring to a statement in the beginning of the declassified portions of the NIE, which says that "the global jihadist movement . . . is spreading and adapting to counterterrorism efforts" and that "if this trend continues, threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide."

http://www.oliverwillis.com/...

However, this document later states:

"Anti-U.S. and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies. This could prompt some leftist, nationalist, or separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack US interests. The radicalization process is occurring more quickly, more widely, and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of surprise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to pinpoint."

and continues:

"We judge that groups of all stripes will increasingly use the Internet to communicate, propagandize, recruit, train and obtain logistical and financial support."

Particularly since we do not know what is in the classified NIE, I share Glen Greenwald's concern about this statement:

"This NIE finding gives rise to this critical question: Are "leftist" groups one of the principal targets on the anti-terrorism agenda of the Bush administration, and if so, aren't the implications rather disturbing?"

The intelligence report cites "leftist" groups as a terror threat
By Glen Greenwald

http://www.salon.com/...

In another article, Greenwald states that the Torture Bill would "give the Bush administration the power to imprison people for their entire lives, literally, without so much as charging them with any wrongdoing or giving them any forum in which to contest the accusations against them."

The president's power to imprison people forever
by Glen Greenwald

http://www.salon.com/...

I assume that Maria Cantwell is using this NIE to make the political point that terrorism is getting worse under Republicans, and that she doesn't really support the surveillance and imprisonment of "leftists."

However, in addition to her silence on the Torture Bill, which certainly merits a press release on her position, I think she is either terribly naive or indifferent to the grave implications of Torture Bill for civil liberties in the United States.

Please, Senator Cantwell, make your stand on the Torture/Indefinite Detention Bill clear.