CIA Torture Report Update: UN, Thailand, Turkey Slam US For Bush-Era Abuses

The international backlash after the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee released a damning report outlining numerous sanctioned and unsanctioned CIA torture methods against suspected terrorists following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks continued Thursday. Thailand, which hosted a CIA “black site” where intelligence operatives reportedly tortured detainees, denied it had any knowledge of the activities.

“We have never allowed the U.S. to use our space for detention or torture, and there have never been any requests to do so,” said Paradorn Pattanathabutr, an advisor to the prime minister and former National Security Council chief, according to Reuters. Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, a minister within the prime minister’s office, distanced the current Thai government from the government when U.S. President George W. Bush was in office and said that all activities in the report happened years ago, according to the Bangkok Post. “The current cooperation between the U.S. and Thailand is based on national sovereignty,” he said. "There are no policies or any practices which are against the law. I can assure that there are no secret jails or torture in Thailand.”

Turkey’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, condemned the acts in the report as “unacceptable” for which there “can be no excuse” in a statement Thursday, according to Daily Sabah. The ministry called for those responsible to be held accountable and is reportedly reading the report to find if any Turkish citizens are mentioned in it. Still, Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu joined Slovakian foreign minister Miroslav Lajčák on Thursday to say they “appreciated” that the President Barack Obama’s administration made the report summary public and said it should be a guarantee it doesn’t happen again, according to Reuters.

U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez, whose office called for U.S. officials to be prosecuted for the activities outlined in the report earlier this week, said on Thursday that U.S. conduct has “has made it easier for other nations to shirk their responsibilities.” Mendez said, “I travel to parts of the world in my capacity of United Nations special rapporteur on torture, and I can attest to the fact that many states either implicitly or explicitly tell you: ‘Why look at us? If the U.S. tortures, why can’t we do it?’” He added that "there is no doubt" that the CIA's brutal interrogation methods following 9/11 "have made the matter of terrorism worse."