President Obama on Tuesday said that extreme forms of interrogation did “significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners,” condemning the practice as the Senate released an extensive report detailing the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of such techniques.
“The report documents a troubling program involving enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects in secret facilities outside the United States, and it reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests,” Obama said.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, after months of wrangling with the Obama administration, released a report that said CIA officials misled lawmakers about the scope of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, using brutal practices that did little to produce key intelligence information.
Soon after entering office, Obama signed an executive order banning “torture.” However, his administration quietly fought the release of the report and pushed for extensive redactions, raising concerns that the document would make U.S. installations overseas a larger target for terrorist groups.
The president did not address those concerns in his public statement on the newly released report. He is not expected to extensively address the matter during a trip to Tennessee later Tuesday to promote his executive actions on immigration.
“In the years after 9/11, with legitimate fears of further attacks and with the responsibility to prevent more catastrophic loss of life, the previous administration faced agonizing choices about how to pursue al Qaeda and prevent additional terrorist attacks against our country,” Obama said. “As I have said before, our nation did many things right in those difficult years. At the same time, some of the actions that were taken were contrary to our values.”
