CIA Chief Insists Torture Did Thwart Attacks

The director of the CIA insisted Tuesday that US agents' use of brutal interrogation techniques against Al-Qaeda suspects helped prevent attacks, in the wake of a critical Senate report.

John Brennan admitted that mistakes had been made in the years following the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.

But he said the Central Intelligence Agency's own review found that harsh interrogations "did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives."

This is disputed in the Senate report, a redacted version of a review that the CIA had tried to delay, which found that the brutal interrogation program had produced little useful information.