New
CIA head blindsided by the Donald 26 Jan 2017
CIA
head was ‘blindsided’ by waterboarding memo
Mike Pompeo was sworn in
Monday as director of the CIA. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
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CIA director Mike
Pompeo was “blindsided” by a draft executive order that could open the door for
American intelligence agencies to resume waterboarding and other “enhanced
interrogation techniques” at newly reopened CIA “black site” prisons
overseas, according to a source familiar with conversations he has had about
the document.
Trump, in an interview
with ABC News anchor David Muir released Wednesday night, indicated he is in
fact considering reinstating waterboarding because he believes it “absolutely” works. While saying he will rely on Pompeo and Mattis’ advice, Trump
told Muir: “We’re not playing on
an even field. When they’re chopping off the heads of our people, and other
people — when they’re chopping off the heads of people because they happen to
be a Christian in the Middle East — when ISIS is doing things that nobody has
ever heard of since medieval times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding?
As far as I’m concerned, we have to fight fire with fire.”
Pompeo, who was
confirmed as CIA director late Monday, was never consulted about the draft
executive order and was unaware of its existence before it was publicly
disclosed by the New York Times Wednesday morning, the source said.
Neither was Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has openly disputed the
effectiveness of such techniques. Another source disputed that Pompeo used
the word “blindsided” in describing his lack of knowledge of the draft order.
The publication of the
draft order prompted intense, and bipartisan, criticism from members of
Congress who said the executive order, as drafted, would violate federal law
and lead to a resumption of discredited interrogation practices that were barred by President Barack Obama
during his first full day in office.
But White House
press secretary Sean Spicer sought to cast doubt on whether the order
represented settled administration policy. “It is not a White House document. I
have no idea where it came from,” Spicer told reporters at a press
briefing Wednesday. He declined to answer further questions about it, or
shed any light on who might have drafted and circulated the document.
The draft order would
revoke two Obama directives — one limiting interrogation practices to those codified
in the Army Field Manual and banning CIA overseas prisons, and another
directing that the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be
closed. (Obama promised to close Guantanamo but was never able to achieve it.)
The Army Field Manual in its current form bans torture, but the new order calls
for high level policy reviews to determine if there are grounds for
“modifications” and “additions” to the document to allow for “safe, lawful and
effective interrogation of enemy combatants captured in the fight against
radical Islamism.”
The language in the
draft order could create particular problems for Pompeo, who appeared to rule
out any such steps in response to direct questions by California Democratic
Sen. Dianne Feinstein in his Jan. 12 confirmation hearing.
“If you were ordered
by the president to restart the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques
that fall outside the Army Field Manual, would you comply?” Feinstein asked
him.
“Senator, absolutely
not. Moreover, I can’t imagine I would be asked that” by President Trump,
Pompeo replied. He noted that he had voted for a law passed by Congress — a
defense authorization bill — that limited interrogations to those in the Army
Field Manual, and added that he is “deeply aware that any changes to that will
come through Congress and the president.”
But in written
responses after that hearing, Pompeo appeared to open the door to proposing
changes in the Army Field Manual if it was necessary to “protect the country” —
a step that would allow the Trump administration to resume techniques that
congressional leaders, notably Sen. John McCain, an outspoken critic of
torture, intended to ban.
Asked in a written question whether there
should be “uniform rules” for military and intelligence interrogations, Pompeo
responded in writing: “If confirmed, I will consult with experts at the Agency
and at other organizations in the U.S. government on whether such uniform rules
are an impediment to gathering vital intelligence to protect the country.” If
he determined that differences between military and CIA interrogation
techniques were necessary, it would be based “on a clear, justified need,” he
said, and he promised to consult with the congressional intelligence
committees about any such adjustments, “including any required changes to law.”
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