CIA chief justifies agency's post 9/11 'harsh' interrogation program amid mounting criticism

In the wake of mounting criticism on the Central Investigative Agency's (CIA) conduct in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, Director John Brennan has admitted that some of the interrogation techniques employed by the agency were "harsh" and "abhorrent" but the officers did what "they were asked to do in the service of their nation."

Speaking at the CIA headquarters, Brennan admitted that some officers did act beyond their authority but added that most did their "duty." He said that the CIA "did a lot of things right" when there were "no easy answers," reported the BBC.

He defended his agency's conduct by saying that the detention and interrogation programme employed by it produced useful intelligence that helped the U.S. foil attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives.

He added that the agency had not concluded if it was the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (EITs) within the programme that helped them to obtain useful intelligence from prisoners who were subjected to them. The "cause-and-effect relationship" between the use of EITs and useful information is "unknowable," Brennan said.

While he was speaking, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who headed the committee that reviewed the CIA's interrogation and detention programme, rejected Brennan's arguments on Twitter by saying that there were other ways to extract useful information from detainees and the study showed that it was "knowable." He added that the study proved that the CIA had the intelligence before torturing prisoners.

A scathing Senate report had accused the agency of using "brutal" methods like, waterboarding, and alleged that they were ineffective as they did not produce any useful intelligence.

Brennan was a senior CIA official in 2002 when the detention and interrogation programme was put in place.