“There’s no doubt that at home and abroad America is at our best when our actions match our values,” Clinton said as she was honored at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights gala in Midtown Manhattan.

“Yes the threat of terrorism is real and urgent - scores of children were just murdered in Pakistan. Beheadings in the Middle East. A siege in Sydney. These tragedies not only break hearts but should steel our resolve and underscore that our values are what set us apart from our adversaries. I am proud to have been a part of the Obama administration that banned illegal renditions and brutal interrogations.

“Today we can say again, in a loud and clear voice, the United States should never condone and practice torture anywhere in the world,” said Clinton, adding that it should be reflected in “both policy and law … if that requires new legislation, then Congress should work with President Obama to quickly enact it and it should not be an issue of partisan politics.”

Where is Hillary Clinton on torture?
12/09/14 04:32 PM By Alex Seitz-Wald

Now a private citizen herself, Clinton has not spoken often on the subject since stepping down as secretary of state early last year. But during a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations sponsored by HBO in June, Clinton called for the release of the Senate report, but said she did not support prosecuting CIA interrogators.

“I am hopeful it will get released,” Clinton said of the report, which was hung up in negotiations between the administration and Senate. “I was not one of those who thought it was necessarily wise to ignore everything that had happened. I thought we needed more transparency … I think the American people deserve to see it.”

But Clinton continued that she “didn’t want people to be criminally prosecuted, people who were doing what they were told to do, that there were legal opinions supporting what they were told to do.”

In new her memoir about her time helming State, “Hard Choices,” Clinton adds: “There was no denying that our country’s approach to human rights had gotten somewhat out of balance” after the Bush administration. She also praised Obama’s order “prohibiting the use of torture or official cruelty,” using the term the Bush administration refused to use for the harsh interrogation tactics.

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In an editorial board meeting, she added that there “are very rare” circumstances when an exception to the no torturing rule would be needed, and “if they occur, there has to be some lawful authority for pursuing it.”