An international human rights group says the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has made misleading statements about the agency's use of torture and mistreatment of detainees.
On Monday, CIA Director Porter Goss was quoted by the USA Today newspaper as saying the agency does not use torture, and that its interrogation techniques are legal.
In a statement issued afterwards, the executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, said a growing body of evidence shows the CIA has tortured detainees.
The rights group cites an ABC news report that quotes several CIA officials as saying the agency approved six interrogation techniques in 2002. They are said to have included slaps, sleep deprivation and waterboarding, in which interrogators immerse or pour water over a detainee's face until he believes he is drowning.
Contacted by VOA, the CIA said Mr. Goss has no comment on the Human Rights Watch allegations.