EO
coming on Enhanced Interrogation???
McCain
to Trump: ‘We are not bringing back torture’
Chief Washington
Correspondent
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President Trump and Sen.
John McCain. (Photos: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP, Cliff Owen/AP)
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Senate Armed Services
Committee Chairman John McCain bluntly warned the White House on Wednesday that
“we are not bringing back torture” amid news reports that President Trump is preparing
an executive order that might do just that.
The New York Times and the Associated Press reported earlier in the day that the Trump administration was
readying a three-page order that could reopen CIA “black site” prisons overseas
— secret facilities where suspected terrorists were held, tortured, and
sometimes killed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Former President Barack
Obama shut them down and ordered an end to torture, but resisted what he
described as “sanctimonious” calls to prosecute or punish officials involved. The new order
would open a review into whether the U.S. should reopen black sites.
McCain, who was
tortured extensively after being shot down over what was then North Vietnam,
has led the fight in Congress against abusive interrogation practices.
“The president can
sign whatever executive orders he likes. But the law is the law. We are not
bringing back torture in the United States of America,” he said in a statement
issued by his office in response to the reports.
McCain noted that
bipartisan legislation signed in 2015 limits U.S. officials to interrogation
techniques listed in the Army Field Manual, which would prohibit tactics such
as waterboarding, in which a prisoner is subjected to controlled drowning.
The news emerged two
days after the Senate confirmed Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas as CIA director.
During his confirmation hearing, Pompeo promised he would “absolutely not” obey
a presidential order to resume using methods that meet international
definitions of torture. But in late 2014, Pompeo had said CIA interrogators who
used such tactics “are not torturers, they
are patriots.” And in written
responses to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pompeo left the door open to revising interrogation
rules in the future.
Throughout the 2016
campaign, Trump promised to bring back waterboarding and techniques he
described as a “hell of a lot worse.” He also declared that “torture works,” and even “if it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway.”
In his statement,
McCain said that Pompeo had promised “during both our personal conversations
and his confirmation hearing” that “he will comply with the law that applies
the Army Field Manual’s interrogation requirements to all U.S. agencies,
including the CIA,” while Defense Secretary James Mattis said military
interrogators would stick to the field manual.
“I am confident these leaders will be true to
their word,” McCain said.
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