Central Intelligence Agencey (CIA) Director John Brennan defended the agency on Thursday amid strong criticism it received after the Senate issued its report on the agency's use of torture during the George W. Bush years.

In a new conference from the CIA office in Langley, Virginia, Brennan pointed out that Bush authorized the use of torture six days after al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the Twin Towers and Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He said it was CIA's task to carry out the program even if the agency was unprepared for it.

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However, he also admitted there were some mistakes in the program, particularly during its early phase, and that some of their techniques were abhorrent and must be rejected, USA Today reports. But Brennan did not specify which techniques he was referring to.

Brennan rejected the conclusion by the Senate Intelligence Committee that torture is not effective and the CIA lied to Congress, but he conceded that at times the agency gave "inaccurate" or "imprecise" information.

Despite these shortcomings, Brennan insisted that it yielded results such as getting information that eventually led to a raid which killed the 9/11 brain, Osama bin Laden. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted that despite the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques," it did not stop terror attacks, captured terrorists or saved lives.

The techniques allowed by the guidelines are waterboarding, depriving suspects of sleep for one week, shackling of detainees in painful positions, pouring water on them and placing them locked inside boxes similar to coffins.

"I will leave to others how they might want to label these activities," the New York Times quoted Brennan as saying.

Brennan said the CIA is no longer in the interrogation business, but he said future policy makers could still authorize the agency to use the same techniques in the future should another security crisis occur.

TagsCIA, Torture, john brenner