John Brennan On CIA Torture Program: 'We Simply Failed'

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LANGLEY, Va. -- In an unusual media address at CIA headquarters Thursday, CIA Director John Brennan conceded that his agency had been unprepared to operate the torture program it ran in the years following 9/11. But Brennan continued to defend the CIA against charges that the use of harsh interrogation techniques failed to produce valuable intelligence from terror suspects.

'We were not prepared. We had little experience housing detainees, and precious few of our officers were trained interrogators,' Brennan said.

But he added, 'Our reviews indicate that the detention and interrogation program produced useful intelligence that helped the United States thwart terror attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives.'

Brennan's address came two days after the Senate Intelligence Committee released a damning report on the agency's Bush-era detention and interrogation program, which involved shipping suspected terrorists to overseas prisons, where they were subjected to torturous interrogations.

The 500-page Senate document provided explosive public revelations about the program, and portrays a rogue CIA intent on manipulating or evading nearly all of its oversight mechanisms. The report, which included gut-wrenching details about the treatment of detainees, has sparked intense national debate about the ethics and the efficacy of torture.

Although Brennan admitted that CIA officers in some instances used unauthorized techniques that he called 'abhorrent,' he stopped short of defining the gruesome abuses as torture, saying he'd leave that determination to others.

This story will be updated.

The spy chief conceded that many times, the agency's abuses and its failure to hold personnel accountable had dented America's national credibility.

'We simply failed to live up to the standards that we set for ourselves and that the American people expect of us,' he said.