In remarks made during a White House briefing on Friday, President Obama summarized the history of CIA abusive practices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks by asking people to remember “how afraid people” were at the time after he acknowledged plainly, “We tortured some folks.”
The comments come amid growing anticipation and new controversy surrounding the upcoming—though only partial and highly redacted—findings of a Senate investigation into CIA abuses during the Bush years.
“I have full confidence in John Brennan,” Obama said in response to questions by reporters who noted that leading Senators in his own party have called for the CIA chief’s resignation over admissions that his agency did, in fact, spy on the investigative panel tasked to explore CIA torture practices following September 11th, 2001 and during the crucial leadup to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The president said that Brennan has “acknowledged and apologized” for CIA personnel who, as Obama termed it, “did not properly handle an investigation” in which “certain documents were not authorized to be released to the Senate staff.”
“It’s clear from the [Inspector General’s] report that some very poor judgement was shown in terms of how that was handled,” Obama said, though he went out of his way to defend the man he appointed to lead the agency last year. “Keep in mind… John Brennan was the person who called for the IG report and he’s already stood up a task force intended to make sure lessons are learned and mistakes resolved.”
Obama then stepped back from the Brennan controversy to do address more broadly the torture policies authorized and carried out under his predecessor, George W. Bush.
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