The US waits for the backlash after CIA interrogation methods on detainees in the wake of 9/11 are described as brutal and ineffective by a Senate report.
ADVERTISEMENTUS lawmakers and the American public are reeling from a damning Senate report on CIA interrogation methods.
It claims the agency used brutal yet ineffective methods to extract information from detainees after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
President Barack Obama described the use of what’s been said to have amounted to torture as doing ‘significant damage to America’s standing in the world’:
“There is never a perfect time to release report like this but it was important for us I think to recognise that what sets us apart is when we do something wrong we acknowledge it,” said the president.
Senate Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, who is a harsh CIA critic after alleging that her computer was hacked while working on the report, said the agency’s actions a decade ago were a stain on US history.
Following her presentation she spoke to euronews’ Washington correspondent Stefan Grobe:
“We have a good idea of what happened, we know where the pitfalls were, we know where the mistakes, some of them, were made, and we do not want to see it replicated ever again. So the point of this is: never again!”
CIA claims that its methods led to the prevention of further terrorist attacks and the finding of al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden have also been dismissed by members of the Senate committee such as political independent Angus King:
“I believe it was contrary to our values and ideals and principles to conduct these kinds of activities. And secondly, I don’t think it was effective. I don’t think it got us intelligence that helped us – that’s the testimony in the report.”
Our correspondent concluded:
“The FBI has warned that the report may spark a terror threat against American interests around the world. This is exactly what the Senate Committee wanted to counter – by telling the truth.”