The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Brennan defended some and condemned other incidents of the torture used to extract confessions out of suspected terrorists in the years following the 9/11 attacks.  But Brennan notably refused to say the America would not torture again.

A scathing report (.pdf link) from the US Senate Intelligence Committee says methods of torture including waterboarding, beatings, and the completely bizarre practice of “rectal feeding” – inexplicably pumping pureed food up the butts of prisoners – were “brutal” and ineffective.

And yet, Brennan attempted to say that torturing people was effective.

“Our reviews indicate that the detention and interrogation program produced useful intelligence that helped the United States thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives,” Brennan told a news conference at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.  Notice that he said “helped”, rather than using an unequivocal positive statement that his statement was true.  And throughout, he studiously avoided the word “torture”, preferring the Orwellian acronym EIT for “enhanced interrogation techniques”.

At the same time, the Chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Dianne Feinstein was live blogging her reactions, and pointing out where Brennan strayed from the factual record.

“No evidence that terror attacks were stopped, terrorists captured or lives saved through use of EITs. #ReadTheReport”, Feinstein tweeted.  “Brennan: "unknowable" if we could have gotten the intel other ways. Study shows it IS knowable: CIA had info before torture. #ReadTheReport,” she said moments earlier.