CIA director John Brennan has defended the spy agency following the publication of a highly critical report into its post 9/11 interrogation techniques.<br /><br /> He admitted the agency was unprepared after the attacks but remained vague on the usefulness of what they call “enhanced interrogation techniques” or EITs.<br /><br /> “The detention and interrogation programme produced useful intelligence that helped the United States to thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives.<br /><br /> “The cause and effect relationship between the use of EITs and useful information subsequently provided by the detainee is in my view unknowable.”<br /><br /> Dianne Feinstein, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee behind the report, tweeted a response to his claim that the usefulness of EITs was ‘unknowable’ with the hashtag #ReadTheReport.<br /><br /> Brennan: "unknowable" if we could have gotten the intel other ways. Study shows it IS knowable: CIA had info before torture. #ReadTheReport— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) December 11, 2014<br /> <br /><br /> Study definitively proves EITs did not lead to bin Laden. Page 378. #ReadTheReport— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) December 11, 2014<br /> <br /><br /> When pressed on whether he deemed the techniques as torture, Brennan avoided using the term and added there had been “enough transparency” in the past few days.<br /><br /> “They (some CIA officers) went outside the bounds in terms of their actions as part of that interrogation process,” he said. <br /><br /> “They were harsh, as I said, in some instances, I consider them abhorrent and I will leave to others how they might want to label those activities.”<br /><br /> He went on to admit that the agency had fallen short of holding some officers responsible.<br /><br /> Human rights groups are now calling for former officials to be investigated for the commission of torture and face criminal charges.
