Obama says US engaged in 'brutal activity'
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E-mail CRI, December 11, 2014
US President Barack Obama has said the United States "engaged in some brutal activity" after the 9/11 attacks.
The remarks came after the release of a Senate report, which accuses the CIA of misleading the White House about its "enhanced interrogation" program.
In an interview with broadcaster Fusion, Obama said the US "did some things that violated who we are as a people."
"Unfortunately, as the Senate report shows, we engaged in some brutal activity after 9/11, and this is an accounting of some of the problems that the CIA program engaged in. I recognize that there are controversies in terms of some of the details, but what's not controversial is the fact that we did some things that violated who we are as a people."
The United Nations and a growing number of civil rights groups are calling for US officials involved to be prosecuted.
Stephane Dujarric is the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
"The prohibition against torture is absolute. The Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) said it a few months ago in his message on the International Day of Victims of Torture. It's absolute and it's non-negotiable. Those states that have signed up to the convention need to follow up on what is in the convention."
The report published on Tuesday said the US brutalized scores of terror suspects with interrogation tactics that turned secret CIA prisons into chambers of suffering and did nothing to make America safer after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
The release of the report has repeatedly been delayed, in part because of the administration's concerns about the breadth and specificity of what would be made public and whether it was worth potentially inflaming anti-American sentiment around the world.
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