Torture report: CIS chief defends post-9/11 interrogation methods

PanARMENIAN.Net - CIA Director John Brennan has defended the agency's post-9/11 interrogation methods but admitted some techniques were "harsh" and "abhorrent". Speaking at CIA headquarters, he said some officers acted beyond their authority but most did their duty, BBC News reported.

A scathing Senate report two days earlier said "brutal" methods like waterboarding were ineffective. Senator Dianne Feinstein, whose committee produced the report, said torture should now be outlawed by law.

In his comments Brennan asserted the CIA "did a lot of things right" at a time when there were "no easy answers". Brennan was a senior CIA official in 2002 when the detention and interrogation programme was put in place.

George W Bush, was U.S. president at that time, has not commented on the report, but his Vice-President Dick Cheney has strongly rejected criticism of the CIA's techniques.

John Brennan spoke in measured tones and with a deep booming voice in a place that clearly made him uncomfortable - standing at a podium in front of journalists and cameras. In his speech he tried to show the human side of the CIA. He said that after 9/11 the staff, like others in the U.S., grieved and prayed.

An outgoing Democratic Senator, Mark Udall, has called on Brennan to quit, citing interference from the CIA in preparing the report.

A summary of the larger classified report says that the CIA carried out "brutal" and "ineffective" interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. and misled other officials about what it was doing.

The information the CIA collected using "enhanced interrogation techniques" failed to secure information that foiled any threats, the report said.

Brennan described the actions of some CIA agents as "harsh" and "abhorrent" but would not say if it constituted torture. He added an overwhelming number of CIA agents followed legal advice from the justice department that authorised some of the brutal methods.

The UN and human rights groups have called for the prosecution of U.S. officials involved in the 2001-2007 programme.

But the chances of prosecuting members of the Bush administration are unlikely - the U.S. justice department has pursued two investigations into mistreatment of detainees and found insufficient evidence.

On Wednesday, an unnamed justice department official told the Los Angeles Times prosecutors had read the report and "did not find any new information" to reopen the investigation. U.S. President Barack Obama, who stopped the programme in 2009, said some methods amounted to torture.

When asked whether there was a situation where the CIA would use similar interrogations again, Brennan said the CIA was "not contemplating" it, but said he left such decisions up to "future policymakers".