Among the critics blasting U.S. policy in the wake of a Senate CIA torture report are the Taliban — the same group that routinely carries out suicide attacks, and just on Thursday claimed responsibility for a bombing at a film screening in Kabul that killed at least four people.
The Taliban, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate, released a statement Thursday that said the Senate report "reveals the true face of America." The report, released Tuesday, said U.S. interrogators used extreme tactics that included simulated drownings, beatings and confinement in coffin-sized boxes in the years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The Taliban said that the alleged abuses in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s long-awaited report are continuing in Afghanistan, and called for the international community to investigate.
Earlier Thursday, the Taliban claimed responsibility after a teenage boy blew himself up in a packed auditorium at a French cultural center in Kabul, where a documentary — about suicide bombers — was being screened. The Taliban also vowed revenge against American forces for the alleged abuses in the CIA torture report.
At a press conference Thursday, CIA Director John Brennan said agents were acting under Bush administration guidance that harsh techniques were legal. Still, he said "in a limited number of cases" some officers went too far and used "techniques that had not been authorized, were abhorrent and rightly should be repudiated by all."
IN-DEPTH
- CIA Chief John Brennan Defends Agency But Questions Some Tactics
- Cheney: CIA Torture Report 'Full of Crap'
- President Obama: CIA's Post-9/11 Torture Was 'Contrary to Who We Are'