TEHRAN/ KABUL: Afghanistan's new President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday condemned CIA torture detailed in a US Senate report, saying the United States' actions violated "all accepted norms of human rights" and were part of a vicious cycle of violence.
Ghani's speech came as his government attempts to revive a moribund talks process with the Taliban, whose 13-year insurgency has gained significant momentum with the phased withdrawal of US-led NATO combat troops in the country.
"The Afghan government condemns these inhumane actions in the strongest terms," he said at a specially-convened press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul.
"There can be no justification for these kinds of actions and inhumane torture in today's world."
The US Senate said in a report that CIA torture of Al-Qaeda suspects was far more brutal than acknowledged and failed to produce useful intelligence.
Ghani, who took office in September amid hopes of better bilateral relations with the US than those enjoyed by his predecessor Hamid Karzai, said: "The reason I want to talk to my countrymen tonight is to explain our position on that report released by the US Senate.
"This report is 499 pages long and since downloading it from the Internet last night I have read every single word of it.
"This is a vicious cycle. When a person is tortured in an inhumane way, the reaction will be inhumane. And thus a vicious cycle of action and reaction is created."
One of the "black sites" mentioned in the report, where practices such as "rectal feeding" and suspending inmates by the wrists, was a facility known as the "Salt Pit", located outside Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base.
Prison facilities at Bagram were mainly handed over to Afghan control in 2012, though the United States is still in charge of foreign detainees.
One Pakistani inmate who was interviewed by AFP in April said he suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and a sustained campaign of mental disintegration over nine years -- despite committing no crime.
An official record of his detention that was later made unclassified shows his captors suspected the same.
"Unfortunately this report shows that our Afghan countrymen have been subjected to torture and their rights violated," Ghani said.
"We want the number of these Afghans to be known, we want their names to be released so we take action for their rights and to defend their human dignity in a serious and fundamental way."
A residual force of around 12,500 foreign troops is set to remain in Afghanistan beyond the end of the year, but its mission will be to train local forces and assist in counter-terrorism.
Ghani stressed that detentions by US forces would now be a thing of the past.
"Based on the Bilateral Security Pact between Afghanistan and the United States, after the end of this year, meaning in 21 days, nobody can take prisoners or establish prisons in Afghanistan," he said.
Sarah Bilal, a lawyer representing the families of Pakistani detainees at Bagram, said the report was "unsurprising".
"It is not surprising to us that they have tortured, we have known this for years with the detainees coming out from Bagram.
"I am hoping that because of this report at least that there is going to be prosecution and people are going to be held accountable. Otherwise it won't mean anything," she added.
CIA torture shows US is 'symbol of tyranny', says Iran leader
The torture of Al-Qaeda suspects by the CIA shows that the US government is a "symbol of tyranny against humanity," Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday.
His was the first official reaction in Iran to a US Senate report that torture of suspects in the years following the 9/11 attacks on the United States was far more brutal than acknowledged and failed to produce useful intelligence.
"Today, US govt. is symbol of tyranny against humanity; even American ppl are faced w cruelty," Khamenei wrote on Twitter, referring to a speech he had made in 2007.
Tehran is regularly criticised from abroad over its own human rights record, especially regarding the high number of people it executes, and over restrictions on press and religious freedoms.
But it invariably retorts that these accusations are politically motivated, in turn criticising Western nations for trying to impose on the Islamic republic their concept of human rights.
"They claim humanrights & trample its basics in their prisons, in interactions w nations & even w their own ppl," Khamenei added from a 2010 speech.
"They claim they've a prideful nation; US govts. debased & misguided their ppl who aren't aware of many realities," he added.
The report, released Tuesday, said the Central Intelligence Agency also misled the White House and Congress with inaccurate claims about the programme's usefulness.
Khamenei's tweets drew extensive comments.
Today,US govt. is symbol of tyranny against humanity;even American ppl are faced w cruelty #ToutureReport #HumanRightsDay #Ferguson 7/28/07
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) December 10, 2014
Some recalled the numerous cases of people who have died in detention in Iran in recent years, and the case of a woman hanged in October for stabbing to death a man she said had tried to sexually assault her.
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@Pakhtun, on top of what you have said, West/US run with hare & hunt with hounds. We saw it in front of our own eyes. We as client state oblige for cash.
Whole world is, once again, falling into these western tactics.
This report is nothing but a mere whitewash on their dirty tactics. These procedures are used by west ever since western civilization exists. It's in their blood, just imagine killing someone for suspecting him/her of being terrorist!!!!! It's even worst form of terrorism but world will only raise voice when the western terrorist will write another white washing report.