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CIA Director Defends Use Of Enhanced Interrogation: ‘There Were No Easy Answers’ [VIDEO]

Alex Griswold Media Reporter
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CIA Director John Brennan, in a press conference Thursday afternoon, defended his agency’s use of enhanced interrogation during the Bush years, noting that there “were no easy answers” in the wake of 9/11:

The previous administration faced agonizing choices about how to pursue al Qaeda and prevent additional terrorist attacks against our country, while facing fears of further attacks and carrying out the responsibility to prevent more catastrophic loss of life. There were no easy answers. Whatever your views are on [Enhanced Interrogation Techniques], our nation, and in particular this agency, did a lot of things right during this difficult time to keep our country strong and secure.

Brennan also noted that many of individuals who underwent interrogation eventually gave useful information:

“Detainees who were subjected to EITs at some point during their confinement subsequently provided information that our experts found to be useful and valuable in our counter-terrorism efforts. Again, the cause and effect relationship between the application of those EITs and the ultimate provision of information is unknown and unknowable. But for someone to say that there was no intelligence of value, of use, that came from those detainees once they were subjected to EITs, I think that lacks any foundation at all.”

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