President Barack Obama described U.S. interrogation techniques after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in strong and direct terms Friday, saying that the country is guilty of “torture.”
The president was speaking in the context of a classified Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which was at the center of confirmed news this week that the CIA improperly accessed a database the committee used to prepare the report.
“Even before I came into office, I was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right. But we tortured some folks,” Obama said during a news conference. “We did some things that were contrary to our values.”
Obama was mindful of the nation’s fearful mood in the wake of the attacks, saying there was “enormous pressure” on law enforcement and national security personnel to act.
“It’s important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had, and a lot of those folks were working hard, and under enormous pressure, and are real patriots. But having said all that, we did some things that were wrong, and that’s what that report reflects.”
Obama said that the declassified version of the report had been transmitted to Congress. According to sources interviewed by The Daily Beast, “[T]he committee’s report will reveal new and shocking details about the CIA’s detention, rendition, and interrogation program in the years following the 9/11 attacks. But the report will not accuse the CIA outright of ‘torture,’ an accusation that could have political, diplomatic, legal, and even criminal implications.”
“Torture” — a word the president used Friday.
Slate’s Dave Weigel pointed out that Obama has used the ‘t’ word in the context of describing U.S. interrogation techniques before, such as when he said he “believe[s] we compromised our basic values … by using torture.” As the AP noted, Obama’s statement Friday may have been his most “emphatic” to date.
Obama added his “full confidence” in CIA Director John Brennan during the presser, saying that Brennan had acknowledged the CIA’s shortcomings amid the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation and was the one who called for the agency’s internal review of its behavior.
