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President Trump believes torture ‘absolutely’ works

January 26, 2017 at 1:52 pm

US President Donald Trump [Anadolu]

In his first TV interview, President Donald Trump supported the use of torture and said that he believed waterboarding “absolutely” works.

Speaking to ABC News journalist David Muir, President Trump said that the US needs to “fight fire with fire” before quickly moderating his controversial comments by adding that he would defer to Defence Secretary James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo to determine what can and cannot be done legally.

Trump made his remark after he was asked about his comments during the New Hampshire Republican primary debate in February 2016, where he said: “I would bring back waterboarding, and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”

Trump’s personal view about torture puts him at odds with the people in his own cabinet. Defence Secretary Mattis, also a retired Marine Corps general, clarified his position on torture during a conversation between the two last year when the retired general became the front runner for the post of defence secretary.

Mattis expressed his views to Trump about waterboarding saying he “never found it to be useful” adding also that “beer, cigarettes work better than waterboarding.”

CIA chief Pompeo also has a very different view to Trump. During his confirmation hearing Pompeo was asked whether he would comply if Trump issued a presidential order calling for the reinstatement of enhanced interrogation techniques that fall outside the Army Field Manual.

“Absolutely not. Moreover, I can’t imagine I would be asked that by [Trump],” Pompeo said.

The use of torture, particularly under the era of former President George Bush in the aftermath of 9/11, became a US embarrassment.

A 480-page report by the US Senate Intelligence Committee gave details of how the CIA used “enhanced interrogation techniques” including waterboarding in 2014. The report which was published after four years of intense dispute concluded that torture did not yield useful intelligence, that the CIA used torture in excess of its remit and repeatedly lied to Congress to cover its tracks and exaggerate the value of any intelligence it extracted under duress.