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Sen. Dianne Feinstein discusses the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's interrogation of suspected terrorists after the 9/11 attacks. VPC
Members and supporters of The Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture hold a rally to "demand Congressional action to stop torture" on Capitol Hill in 2008.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
There has been widespread global condemnation of the CIA's use of torture — detailed in a report released Tuesday — against suspected terrorists. Below are some of the voices leading the outrage.
CHINA
"China has consistently opposed torture," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. "We think the U.S. should reflect on that and correct related practices, to earnestly abide by and honor the regulations of international conventions."
FRANCE
Extreme-right politician Marine Le Pen said she "did not condemn" the CIA's methods. "On subjects like this it's quite easy to go on television to say 'Oh, la la! That's wrong'," Le Pen told French broadcaster BFMTV. "I believe that those people who are dealing with terrorists, and trying to get information out of them that helps save civilian lives, are responsible people."
NORTH KOREA
The rogue state weighed in via its official state news agency in typically cryptic fashion: "Why is the UNSC turning its face from the inhuman torture practiced by the CIA over which the UN Anti-Torture Committee expressed particular concern and which is dealt with in the 6,000 page-long report presented by the Intelligence Committee of the U.S. Senate ... If the UNSC handles the "human rights issue" in the DPRK while shutting its eyes to the serious human rights issue in the U.S., one of its permanent members, while failing to settle the pending and urgent issues directly linked with the world peace and security, it will prove itself its miserable position that it has turned into a tool for U.S. arbitrary practices just as everybody can hear everywhere."
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RUSSIA
The Guardian reported that Konstantin Dolgov, Russia's human rights ombudsman, released a series of tweets slamming the U.S. response to the report: "The Senate's report proves that there was systematic use of torture in CIA prisons in violation of the international obligations of the US. Everyone has known this for a long time. But the Obama administration, having formally banned torture, hasn't lifted a finger to punish those guilty for these egregious human rights abuses. This has created a further stain on the already stained US reputation in human rights. Let's see what the administration's reaction to the report is."
UNITED KINGDOM
British Prime Minister David Cameron: "Let's be clear: torture is wrong; torture is always wrong. In Britain we have had the Gibson inquiry and that inquiry has now produced a series of questions that the intelligence and security Committee will look at. But I am satisfied that our system is dealing with all these issues and I, as prime minister, have issued guidance to all of our agents and others working around the world about how they have to handle these issues in future."
UNITED NATIONS
The United Nations' top special investigator for counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson, called for the prosecution of senior U.S. officials who authorized and carried out torture as part of former President George W. Bush's national security policies. "It is now time to take action. The individuals responsible for the criminal conspiracy revealed in today's report must be brought to justice, and must face criminal penalties commensurate with the gravity of their crimes," Emmerson said.
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