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C.I.A. Director Forcefully Defends Agency in Rare Public Speech C.I.A. Director, Admitting Agency Mistakes, Calls for End to Interrogation Debate
(35 minutes later)
WASHINGTON — John O. Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, delivered a rare public speech at the agency’s headquarters on Thursday afternoon to address a storm of criticism over revelations about the C.I.A.'s detention and interrogation program during the Bush administration. WASHINGTON — John O. Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on Thursday acknowledged problems and misstatements during the agency’s former interrogation program as he called for an end to a rancorous debate over brutal interrogation tactics.
Mr. Brennan offered a forceful defense of the C.I.A. and made a case that the detention program provided valuable intelligence in the hunt for senior Qaeda leaders, while at the same time acknowledging some of the specific interrogation methods and the grisly details of torture revealed this week in a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Mr. Brennan, in a rare news conference at C.I.A. headquarters, said agency leaders “still fundamentally disagree” with a Senate report that concluded that waterboarding and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques produced no valuable intelligence.
“There was very valuable intelligence obtained from individuals who had been, at some point, subjected to E.I.T.'s,” Mr. Brennan said.
He would not say whether he believed that the agency tortured any of the terrorism suspects it held and questioned for years. A Senate report this week described instances of prisoners’ being chained to walls for days, waterboarded until they lost consciousness and locked in small boxes.
“I will leave to others how they might want to label those activities,” Mr. Brennan said. “For me it was something that is regrettable.”
Mr. Brennan’s speech came a day after Democratic members of the committee criticized him for the agency’s response to the report. They said the C.I.A.'s response is at odds with a separate, internal review overseen by a former director of the agency, Leon E. Panetta, which they claim is far more critical of the detention and interrogation program. President Obama halted the program in 2009.Mr. Brennan’s speech came a day after Democratic members of the committee criticized him for the agency’s response to the report. They said the C.I.A.'s response is at odds with a separate, internal review overseen by a former director of the agency, Leon E. Panetta, which they claim is far more critical of the detention and interrogation program. President Obama halted the program in 2009.
“The C.I.A.'s formal response to the study under Director Brennan clings to false narratives about the effectiveness of the C.I.A.'s detention and interrogation program,” Senator Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado, said Wednesday. “And I believe its flippant and dismissive tone represents the C.I.A.'s approach to oversight — and the White House’s willingness to let the C.I.A. do whatever it likes — even if its efforts are aimed at actively undermining the president’s stated policies.” “My fervent hope is that we can put aside this debate and move forward,” Mr. Brennan said.
Mr. Brennan was a senior C.I.A. official in 2002 when the detention and interrogation program was put in place. He has said publicly that he opposed the brutal interrogation methods that C.I.A. interrogators used against Qaeda suspects, including the drowning technique known as waterboarding.Mr. Brennan was a senior C.I.A. official in 2002 when the detention and interrogation program was put in place. He has said publicly that he opposed the brutal interrogation methods that C.I.A. interrogators used against Qaeda suspects, including the drowning technique known as waterboarding.
The so-called Panetta Review has not been made public. Those who have seen it describe it as a series of internal C.I.A. memos summarizing the documents that the agency gave to the committee in 2009, when the Senate investigation began. Mr. Brennan would not say whether he ever raised objections to the interrogation techniques. “I was not in the chain of command,” he said.