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President Obama sought Tuesday to soften the impact of a new Senate committee report on the use of waterboarding and other brutal methods of interrogation in the U.S. response to terrorist attacks and threats, pledging publicly that he would try to make sure that the country never resorts to such methods in the future.

In a statement issued moments after the report was released, Obama decried what he described as one element of our nations response to the Sept. 11 attacks, specifically the CIAs detention and interrogation program, which he formally ended shortly after taking office.

The report documents a troubling program involving enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects in secret facilities outside the United States, and it reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as a nation, they did not serve our broader counter-terrorism efforts or our national security interests, Obama said. Moreover, these techniques did significant damage to Americas standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners. That is why I will continue to use my authority as president to make sure we never resort to those methods again.

The nations intelligence community is braced for a possible backlash to the findings of the report, which is thousands of pages long and recounts CIA interrogation tactics in the years after 9/11. The report concludes that the program lost track of captives, extracted false confessions and fabricated information, and produced no useful intelligence about imminent terrorist attacks.

Obamas director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said in a message to the intelligence community that it must remain vigilant and focused on its work.

The CIA quickly attacked the report, noting that the program was found to be legal by the Justice Department under the Bush administration, but acknowledging that the interrogations were ultimately flawed.

The most serious problems occurred early on and stemmed from the fact that the agency was unprepared and lacked the core competencies required to carry out an unprecedented, worldwide program of detaining and interrogating suspected Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorists, CIA Director John Brennan said in a statement. In carrying out that program, we did not always live up to the high standards that we set for ourselves and that the American people expect of us.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has been working for months to declassify material for the report, navigating disputes between her committee and the CIA about what could be released publicly. The Obama administration supported the release of the report, but has also directed U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence units to prepare for possible violence around the world as a result.

On Tuesday, Obama argued that the U.S. had done more to stand up for freedom and human rights of people around the world.

As Americans, we owe a profound debt of gratitude to our fellow citizens who serve to keep us safe, among them the dedicated men and women of our intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency, he said.

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Obama says report shows CIA torture program at odds with U.S. values

President Obama told comedian Stephen Colbert on Monday that he has no trouble staying humble because he has not only Congress to keep his ego in check but also his wife and daughters.

"There are no trumpets" at his home in the family residence of the White House, he said, adding that wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha "tease me mercilessly."

Still, in a taping of "The Colbert Report," Obama jokingly acknowledged that he's not exactly a wilting flower in another wing of the White House, as he expands his use of executive power in controversial moves on immigration and climate.

Colbert reminded Obama that in 2008, he criticized excessive executive power under President George W. Bush, and pointed out that now, "You seem to have a whole lot of power."

"Does that happen to every president, where you get into the office and you think, 'Oh, you know what, I might be the only one I trust with this much power so I'll hold onto it?'" Colbert asked, in character as the conservative news anchor he plays on his talk show.

Good point, replied Obama.

"For the first time, you're asking a sensible question," Obama said. He said his preference would be to act on issues through legislation passed by Congress.

The comments came in a multi-segment presidential appearance on the show, as Colbert winds down the run of his show and prepares to take over for the departing David Letterman on CBS' "The Late Show."

Obama sidestepped a pointed question about whether he will approve the Keystone XL pipeline project and reverted to talking points on the importance of healthcare and immigration reform.

He laughed off the dismal outcome of the midterm election for his fellow Democrats, and took credit for rising employment figures.

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Obama talks family, power, numerous Defense secretaries on 'Colbert'

His daughters mock his big ears, he leaves his socks on the floor and sitting behind Stephen Colbert's desk, he said, gives him a greater sense of power.

When President Barack Obama was not seriously defending his economic record, his executive actions on immigration and his delayed decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline Monday on "The Colbert Report," he was playfully confiding that the trappings of the presidency really don't go to his head.

"When I go home, Michelle, Malia and Sasha give me a hard time," he told host Stephen Colbert. "There are no trumpets, and they tease me mercilessly."

It was Obama's third appearance on the show, his second as president, and marked the beginning of the final two weeks for the Comedy Central program. Colbert will take over for David Letterman on CBS' "Late Show" next year.

Obama kicked off the show sitting in for Colbert to perform a regular feature of the program called "The Word" wherein Colbert's rants are accompanied by snarky messages to the audience.

So when Obama, as Colbert, declared that there are aspects of "Obamacare" that people from both parties actually like, the text aside to the audience read, "Everything but the Obama."

Later, Colbert observed that the economy had been creating more jobs of late.

"You have employed a lot of people ? mostly as secretary of defense," Colbert cracked in a reference to Obama recently nominating his fourth top civilian at the Pentagon.

"That's boosted our numbers a little bit," Obama replied.

Colbert, whose on-screen persona is that of an insufferable conservative scold, accused Obama of exceeding his authority on immigration. "When did you decide to burn the Constitution and become emperor?" he asked. The question was heard as a joke by many in the audience at George Washington University. But to Obama's critics, the question had a ring of truth.

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Obama Riffs on His Presidency With Stephen Colbert

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Barack Obama participates in an 'Hour of Code' event with middle-school students including Adrianna Mitchell in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington, D.C.

President Barack Obama became the first occupant of the Oval Office to publicly write a line of code on Monday.

Kicking off Code.org's Hour of Code campaign and Computer Science Education Week from the White House, Obama wrote a single line of JavaScript.

Read MoreCashing in on the coding revolution

This is what the president wrote, according to Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi:

moveForward(100);

The code, which included a predefined function for a tutorial using characters from Disney's "Frozen," moved a figure 100 pixels.

According to Partovi, Obama "asked if he needs to type the F in upper-case, and he got the () and the ; right too, he was very precise and didn't make a typing mistake."

Read MoreThe job skills gap starts in high school

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Obama first prez to publicly code

By Sara Fischer, CNN

updated 7:52 PM EST, Mon December 8, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama delivered a poignant personal promise to the American people Monday, vowing to continue to fight to improve racial tensions in America, given the "particular experiences" he brings to the office.

"I'm going to stay on this," the President said Monday in an interview with BET, a network that reaches a predominately young African-American audience. "Not only am I going to stay on it ... but hopefully the entire society says, 'Let's finally try to make some real progress on this.'"

Once criticized for shying away from the topic of race early on in his presidency, Obama has recently taken a more active role in sharing how his personal experiences help him to empathize with all kinds of people affected by the recent protests on racial tensions -- from protesters, to victims, to law enforcement officers, to families, and most importantly, to black youth.

In his interview with BET's "106 & Park," the President cited a meeting he had with nonviolent protesters Monday -- between ages 18-25. For him, he says, listening to young African-Americans describe their own experiences of being stopped for no reason, or being unjustly labeled as suspicious, strikes a personal chord.

"My mind went back to what it was like for me when I was 17, 18, 20," the President said. "As I told them, not only do I hear the pain and frustration of being subjected to that kind of constant suspicion, part of the reason I got into politics was to figure out how can I bridge some of those gaps and understandings so that the larger country understands this is not just a black problem or a brown problem, this is an American problem."

The President also made a point to invoke Attorney General Eric Holder's race and civil rights record, saying, "He's got a similar set of stories and experiences he can share."

While most of the protests across the country have been relatively peaceful, many of the gatherings have caused traffic delays and street closures. According the President, those are small prices to pay in order to achieve the larger goal of ending racial tensions in America.

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Obama gets personal