CIA chief defends terror response

CIA director John Brennan has defended his agency from accusations in a Senate report that it used inhumane interrogation techniques against terrorist suspects with no security benefits to the US.

Mr Brennan opened a rare news conference by recounting the horrors of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks, his agency’s determination to prevent another such assault and the fact that CIA officers were the first to fight and early to die in the Afghanistan war.