Trump Endorses Torture
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On his sixth day in Office, Donald Trump has told ABC News that waterboarding, a form of torture that gives people the sensation that they are drowning, works.
Speaking in the interview, Trump said that he wanted to “keep [his] country safe”. He also continued to say that, with regards to so-called Islamic State, America is “not playing on an even field” with them.
When asked about waterboarding, the President said: “I have spoken with people at the highest level of intelligence and I asked them the question ‘Does it work? Does torture work?’ and the answer was ‘Yes, absolutely’.”
Waterboarding works by strapping the subject to a board, often a wooden one, with a piece of cloth tied around their eyes. The subject cannot move and is completely immobile when water is poured on their face, creating the drowning effect intended to break the subject’s silence and prompt a confession.
Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, waterboarding and other interrogation techniques were used by the CIA. Al-Qaeda members Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were subject to the technique dozens of times.
However, in 2009, President Obama banned torture as an interrogation technique and a Senate committee concluded the technique did not provide any critical intelligence.
President Trump did say that he would consult Defence Secretary James Mattis and CIA director Mike Pompeo on the use of the waterboarding technique, saying: “if they don’t want to do it that’s fine”.
The saga continues…