The CIA's enhanced interrogation technique program was authorized by President George W. Bush, the bureau's current director John Brennan said on Thursday, and it had his full support.

Brennan, who worked at the CIA at the time as a deputy to a high-ranking CIA official, told reporters that Bush ordered up the program six days after al Qaeda attacked America, despite the fact that the spy agency did not have adequate space to house detainees nor did it have the correct training to interrogate them.

'In many respects the program was uncharted territory for the CIA, and we were not prepared,' he said, later stating that officers 'inadequately developed and monitored' the program and 'the agency failed to establish quickly the operational guidelines needed to govern the entire effort.'

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CIA Direction John Brennan said today that actions taken by operatives in the George W. Bush administration were 'harsh' and 'in some instances they were abhorrent'

The spymaster departed from a Senate Intelligence Committee report released on Tuesday claiming that the CIA acted alone without the knowledge of Bush and that the measures it took were not effective at obtaining information terrorism suspects.

Brennan echoed comments he made on Tuesday when the paper was first published and argued that detainees who were part of the program did provide useful information that aided in War on Terror.

However, he again refused to engage in a debate over whether the information could have been elicited through conventional interrogation tactics.

'It’s an unknowable fact,' he said.

Furthermore, he said during that the presser that the CIA has 'not concluded that it was the use of EITs within that program that allowed us to obtain useful information from detainees subjected to them.

'Irrespective of the role EITS might play in a detainee's provision of useful information, I believe effective non-coercive methods are available to elicit such information,' he stated.

The CIA chief declined to characterize the agency's measures as 'torture,' saying he would 'leave to others how they might want to label those activities.'

Yet he did admit there were times when CIA officers 'exceeded the policy guidance that was given and the authorized techniques that were approved and determined to be lawful.'

'They went outside of the bounds,' he said, and 'they were harsh.'

'In some instances, I considered them abhorrent.

'For me, it was something that is certainly regrettable,' he said, 'but we are not a perfect institution.'

Earlier in the statement he said the 'abhorrent' actions were only used in a 'limited' number of cases but they 'rightly should be repudiated by all.'

'We fell short when it came to holding some officers accountable for their mistakes.'

Still, he said, 'it is vitally important to recognize, however, that the overwhelming majority of officers involved in the program at CIA carried out their responsibilities faithfully and in accordance with the legal and policy guidance they were provided.

'They did what they were asked to do in the service of our nation,' he added.

'In fact, some of these officers raised objections and concerns with the program and with its implementation, which is crucial to insuring that the system works as it should and that we are able to adjust as needed,' he said.

The CIA officers who followed the guidelines set forth 'should neither be criticized nor conflated with the actions of the few who did not,' he argued.

'At the same time, none of these lapses should be excused downplayed or denied.'

The CIA Memorial Wall in the lobby of the CIA Headquarters, pictured here in May, features stars signifying the agents and contractors killed in the line of duty working for the CIA. Brennan spoke of one of them today: an agent killed in Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11

CIA operative Johnny Mike Spann, who was killed in a Qalai Janghi prison uprising, was among the first Americans in Afghanistan to launch the U.S. war against terrorism, and was the first American to be killed in during the recent military actions, Brennan confirmed today

A Senate report released on Tuesday revealed for the first time the gruesome details of the CIA's enhanced interrogation technique program that ran from 2002 - 2007 and was formally banned in 2009 by President Barack Obama during his first week in office.

The redacted 500-page document, paired down from a significantly lengthier 6,000-page classified paper, accused the CIA of misleading Congress, the White House, the Department of Justice and the American people about the severe conditions it was subjecting terrorism suspect to.

CIA DIRECTOR RESPONDS TO CRITICISM OF CIA How it happened: 'In many respects the program was uncharted territory for the CIA, and we were not prepared.' Would conventional methods have worked?: 'It’s an unknowable fact.' His take: 'I believe effective non-coercive methods are available to elicit such information.' Did the CIA torture detainees?: I'll 'leave to others how they might want to label those activities.' Was the CIA given permission to conduct these measures?: Yes but at times agents 'exceeded the policy guidance that was given and the authorized techniques that were approved and determined to be lawful.' 'They went outside of the bounds,' he said, and 'they were harsh.' 'In some instances, I considered them abhorrent.' How many agents committed these acts?: 'The overwhelming majority of officers... carried out their responsibilities faithfully and in accordance with the legal and policy guidance they were provided. 'They did what they were asked to do in the service of our nation,' he said. Advertisement

It also claimed that enhanced interrogation tactics did not lead to actionable intelligence in the hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

At the same time Brennan released a statement saying it was the agency's view that the report, written exclusively by Senate Democrats, drew incorrect conclusions about the effectiveness of the CIA program and the Bush administration's knowledge of the procedures it used.

'In carrying out that program, we did not always live up to the high standards that we set for ourselves and that the American people expect of us,' Brennan said, but 'our review indicates that interrogations of detainees on whom EITs were used did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives.'

'The intelligence gained from the program was critical to our understanding of al Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day,' the Obama administration official said.

On Thursday the CIA director stood by his initial claims but made sure to note that he agrees with President Obama that the behavior undermined what the White House has branded as the United States 'moral authority.'

The president 'has consistently expressed the view that these techniques did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners - something I have experienced firsthand,' he said.

'I fully support the president's decision to prohibit the use of [enhanced interrogation techniques],' he said.

Brennan's press conference followed a meeting with the president at the White House on Thursday morning.

The president's staff slipped Brennan into Obama's morning briefing - which is classified - in hopes that it would not have to disclose the CIA director's visit to reporters.

But Brennan was spotted at the White House by press, blowing his cover, and the president's spokesman was forced to confirm the meeting during his daily Q and A session with media.

He would not say what Brennan and Obama discussed, under the clever guise that he was there for a classified discussion, telling reporters that the White House wouldn't have invited him to participate in the most 'secretive briefing' in Washington, D.C. if it wanted them to know what the two men talked about.

Newly detained prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are pictured here in February 2002. The CIA ran its interrogation program from 2002 until 2007. In 2009 it was banned by President Barack Obama immediately after taking office

At its height, the CIA program included secret prisons in countries including Afghanistan, Thailand, Romania, Lithuania and Poland — locations that are referred to only by color-themed codes in a Senate report revealing their existance

Brennan was not in charge of the CIA at the time that the 'torture' allegedly took place, but he did work there as a deputy to a top official

Defiant: Brennan refused to call the practices outlined in Senate Democrats' report 'torture,' instead leaving that distinction to others to make. President Barack Obama has said in the past that he believes the CIA 'tortured some folks'

Brennan began his remarks on Thursday by revisiting the events that took place on Sept. 11, 2001, as terrorists with a 'murderous agenda' attacked the World Trade Center in New York City twice and flew a plane into the Pentagon. A fourth aircraft headed for Washington, D.C. crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers tried to overtake their hijackers.

'All of us at CIA were devastated that operatives were able to carry out such horrific acts in near simultaneous fashion and on American soil,' he said.

The CIA official recalled trying to evacuate agents at the bureau's Langley, Virginia, headquarters in case it, too was attacked, but they 'stayed at their posts despite the danger.'

Brennan said they and operatives stationed around the world worked tireless throughout the following days 'to piece together the clues as to what plans were under way to carry out yet more attacks.'

When the first American boots touched the ground in Afghanistan 15 days later, it was a CIA operative, he revealed. A CIA operative was also the first American to die in Afghanistan, he said.

'The events of 9/11 will be forever seared into the memory of Americans. Not only were our consciences shocked and our hearts and souls ripped off, so, too, our collective national sense of homeland security was shattered,' he said.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks, Brennan said, 'we pledged to come together as one and to do what we could to prevent bin Laden and his killing machine from ever carrying out another attack against our beautiful country.

'Never again, we vowed. Never again.'

It was in front of that backdrop that the government threw all its resources behind stopping 'al Qaeda before it could shed the blood of more innocent men, women and children, be it in America or be it in any other corner of the world,' he said, explaining that 'there were numerous credible and very worrisome reports about a second and third wave of major attacks against the United States.'

Terror: The CIA believes that aggressive interrogation of terrorism suspects 'saved live' by leading to the capture of al Qaeda operatives, including those responsible for the World Trade Center attacks in 2001

Brennan pointed out that at the time the program developed by the CIA was legally authorized, though those legal documents have since been revoked.

'There were no easy answers,' he said, 'And whatever your views are on EITs, our nation, and in particular this agency, did a lot of things right during this difficult time to keep this country strong and secure.'

The spy chief pointed out that the majority staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee did not interview key CIA personnel, a group that includes former directors and deputy directors of the CIA in the Bush administration, six of whom came together on Wednesday to write an op-ed denouncing the so-called torture report, and called the oversight 'unusual.'

In reviews of 'politically sensitive matters' in the past, Brennan said, the Senate Intelligence Committee has conducted itself with the utmost professionalism.

In this case, though, they came to 'flawed' conclusions at times, however, because of their failure to speak to CIA staff responsible for implementing the program, he said, noting that the CIA complied with the the investigation and gave committee staff access to 'unprecedented amount of sensitive CIA documents.'

Still, the CIA, believes that 'many aspects of their conclusions are sound and consistent with our own prior findings,' he said.

The Senate committee said earlier this week that it did not interview top dogs at the CIA when it first began conducting its review five and a half years ago because the matter was still under investigation by DOJ.

But even after Justice dropped its probe in 2012, the Senate did not seek to talk to CIA officials, preferring instead to rely on close to 6.5 million documents from the time period under review.

In a dissenting report also released on Tuesday six Republican senators on the committee said the main paper was created on the 'basis of a flawed analytical methodology' and was therefore tainted.