HughPickens.com [hughpickens.com] writes:
AP reports that CIA chief John Brennan says his spy agency
will not engage in waterboarding even if ordered to do so by a future president [bloomberg.com] because "this institution needs to endure." The CIA used such interrogation techniques after the Sept. 11 attacks and Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have suggested they would not continue the
ban President Obama put on waterboarding [wikipedia.org] shortly after taking office in 2009.
"I would bring back waterboarding," said GOP front-runner Donald Trump [usatoday.com] during a Feb. 6 debate in New Hampshire. "And I would bring back a hell of a lot worse." Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, also known for his hawkish language on the campaign trail, said during the debate that he didn't think waterboarding was, by definition, torture. He added that he wouldn't bring it back in any "widespread" fashion. Brennan, a longtime Obama security adviser, took an unequivocal stance against "enhanced interrogation" techniques: "I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure," said Brennan.
"I would not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again." [nbcnews.com]
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