WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama said a classified report on
U.S. interrogation techniques after the Sept. 11 attacks, which
could be made public as soon as next week, will show the U.S. used
techniques on some terrorism suspects that "any fair-minded person
would believe were torture."
Mr. Obama, anticipating that the declassification of the report
will reignite the divisive post-Sept. 11 debate in the U.S. over
so-called enhanced interrogations, said it would disclose a part of
America's history that was wrong and runs "contrary to our
values."
"We tortured some folks," Mr. Obama said at a news conference
Friday. "We crossed a line."
Mr. Obama urged Americans who are most likely to be outraged by
the findings in the report not to be "too sanctimonious in
retrospect about the tough job" that U.S. intelligence officials
had at the time.
Already, the coming Senate report has been at the center of a
fight between the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John
Brennan, and Mr. Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate.
Mr. Obama expressed "full confidence" in Mr. Brennan on Friday
after an internal CIA review found intelligence officers spied on
computers used by Senate staffers who were investigating the
interrogation program. Several lawmakers have since called for Mr.
Brennan's resignation.
Human Rights advocates said that the report on interrogation
techniques will provide an opportunity for congress to pass a law
that will prevent techniques that were used by the CIA, such as
waterboarding, from being used again.
Write to Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com and Siobhan Gorman at
siobhan.gorman@wsj.com
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