CIA chief: Agency used ‘abhorrent’ methods

Washington, December 12 (PTI)
The CIA chief has defended the techniques used by the interrogators on terror suspects post 9/11 attacks but admitted that in limited number of cases the methods had not been authorized and were “abhorrent”.

"There was information obtained, subsequent to the application of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs), from detainees that was useful in the (Osama) bin Laden operation,” CIA Director John Brennan said in a rare media briefing after a Senate report into Central Intelligence Agency's treatment of terrorism suspects triggered global revulsion.

Brennan said the internal CIA reviews indicate that the detention and interrogation programme produced useful intelligence that helped the US thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives.

He, however, said it was difficult to ascertain that the use of EITs had yielded useful intelligence.

"We have not concluded that it was the use of EITs within that programme that allowed us to obtain useful information from detainees subjected to them. The cause and effect relationship between the use of EITs and useful information subsequently provided by the detainee is, in my view, unknowable," he said.

"Irrespective of the role EITs might play in a detainee's provision of useful information, I believe effective, non- coercive methods are available to elicit such information," he further said.

Brennan said the CIA's detention and interrogation programmes came amid fear of another wave of assaults from Al-Qaida after the 9/11 attacks as the intelligence agency grappled with a task it was "not prepared" for.

"In many respects, the programme was uncharted territory for the CIA and we were not prepared. We had little experience housing detainees and precious few of our officers were trained interrogators. But the President authorized the effort six days after 9/11 and it was our job to carry it out," he said.

“The CIA was unprepared to conduct a detention and interrogation programme. Our officers inadequately developed and monitored its initial activities. The agency failed to establish quickly the operational guidelines needed to govern the entire effort," Brennan said.

"In a limited number of cases, agency officers used interrogation techniques that had not been authorized, were abhorrent, and rightly should be repudiated by all. We fell short when it came to holding some officers accountable for their mistakes," he said.

"They went outside of the bounds and terms of their actions that - as part of that interrogation process. And they were harsh. In some instances, I considered them abhorrent, and I will leave to others how they might want to label those activities," he added. — PTI