Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, speaks to reporters after delivering a speech on the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's interrogation techniques, in the U.S. Capitol Building on December 9, 2014 UPI/Kevin Dietsch |
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MOSCOW, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Global comment after the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA interrogation methods was uniformly negative, with allies offering muted regret and others strongly denouncing the United States.
Wednesday's report highlighted incidents of CIA torture during interrogation of suspected terrorists after Sept. 11, 2001, and countries with spotty human rights records used it as an opportunity to castigate the United States. The Russian government called the report confirmation of "gross, systemic human rights violations by the American authorities," adding the majority of the report "remains classified, and the American authorities still do not wish to disclose it."
"We are urging the human rights community and responsible international organizations and structures to seek from Washington the disclosure of the full spectrum of information about human rights abuses committed in the framework of this 'global war on terror' and to bring those guilty to justice," Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's commissioner for human rights, said in a statement on the ministry's website.
Russia, a country whose government does not offer opportunities for inquiry when accused of wrongdoing, was not alone in criticism of the severity of U.S. torture methods described in the report.
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani told reporters the report "unfortunately shows that our Afghan compatriots had been tortured. All Afghan people should know that after 2014 no international forces would be allowed to put any Afghan citizen in jail, get into their homes or have prisons."
British Prime Minister David Cameron noted, "Torture is wrong. Torture is always wrong. Those of us want to see a safer, more secure world, want to see the extremism defeated. We won't succeed if we lose our moral authority."
While a commentary published by China's state-run Xinhua news agency referred to "the sheer hypocrisy of the United States as a defender of human rights," an unsigned editorial in another state-run publication, the Global Times, noted that "in many developing countries including China, there has even been applause for U.S. democracy after the release of these reports. They have paid attention to the courage of the U.S. rather than the crime of prisoner abuse."
