"When we engaged in some of these enhanced interrogation techniques – techniques that I believe and any fair-minded person would believe were torture – we crossed a line. And that needs to be understood and accepted, and we have to, as a country, take responsibility for that so that hopefully we don't do it again in the future." Alberto Mora, the former top lawyer for the US Navy who argued against the Bush administration's legal redefinition of torture, told The Telegraph it was an "important step" that Mr Obama had used the word "torture" in an official setting, but that his response remained "inadequate".