Tehran Friday Prayers Leader:

“US using medieval torture techniques against detainees”

Rasa – Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami, a senior Iranian cleric has lashed out at the US government for violating human rights by using brutal torture techniques against its detainees.

News ID: 1803

Date: 12 December 2014 - 16:46

“Their tortures are medieval; the Americans, who speak of human rights, are the world’s frontrunners in violating human rights,” Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami said in a sermon to worshippers at the weekly Friday Prayers in Tehran.

The senior Iranian cleric’s remarks came days after the US Senate Intelligence Committee released a damning report on the CIA’s torture program, which has triggered worldwide condemnation.

The 6,200-page report is the result of a 5-year Senate investigation into the 6.3 million documents reviewing the practices of the CIA spy agency under the former US President George W. Bush administration. A 500-page summary of the report was made public on December 9.

The CIA’s torture program involved capturing terrorism suspects and shipping them to secret overseas prisons known as black sites, where they were subjected to torture techniques such as water-boarding.

The Senate report concluded that the CIA interrogation techniques were an “ineffective means of acquiring accurate intelligence or gaining detainee cooperation.”

Ayatollah Khatami added, “Today, the US is a huge exhibition of human rights violations; the US police kill blacks, and their courts acquit the murderer; and those who protest crimes and racial discrimination are confronted.”

The remarks came in reference to the recent killing of unarmed blacks by white police officers in the US.

On August 9, unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was repeatedly shot by officer Darren Wilson at close range. A grand jury later refused to indict Wilson.

In another similar incident, 43-year-old Eric Garner died in mid-July after being placed in a chokehold by New York Police Department Officer Daniel Pantaleo. Another jury also refused to press charges against Pantaleo.

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