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August 4, 2014

Obama Admits "We Tortured Some Folks" — and that Not All Bush-Era Methods are Banned 
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At a news conference on Friday, President Obama said he has "full
confidence" in CIA Director John Brennan. Addressing the Senate report
that the CIA spied on, Obama acknowledged the United States has
"tortured some folks."

President Obama: "We did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot
of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. It's important
for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job
that those folks had. And a lot of those folks were working hard under
enormous pressure and are real patriots."

In comments that got far less attention, Obama also said that after he
took office, he banned "some" — not all — of the CIA's
torture practices.

President Obama: "But having said all that, we did some things that were
wrong. And that's what that report reflects. And that's the reason why,
after I took office, one of the first things I did was to ban some of
the extraordinary interrogation techniques that are the subject of that
report."