SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Brennan speaking at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)
CIA Chief Who Did Nothing to Stop Waterboarding Now Says He'd Quit if Agency Asked to Resume
'It'll be up to the director of CIA and others within CIA to decide whether or not that, that direction and order is something that they can carry out in good conscience'
Jul 14, 2016
CIA director John Brennan on Wednesday vowed to resign if he was ordered by the next president to have the CIA resume waterboarding detainees--but the agency could still take up the practice.
"If a president were to order, order the agency to carry out waterboarding or something else, it'll be up to the director of CIA and others within CIA to decide whether or not that, that direction and order is something that they can carry out in good conscience," Brennan said, according to The Intercept.
"I can say that as long as I'm director of CIA, irrespective of what the president says, I'm not going to be the director of CIA that gives that order. They'll have to find another director," he added, according to Reuters.
The remarks were presumably a response to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's past declarations of support for the torture method condemned by rights groups. They came at the end of a speech the CIA chief gave at the Brookings Institution.
The Intercept observed that Brennan "did not acknowledge that Congress last year turned Obama's anti-torture executive order into law, explicitly banning waterboarding and other forms of torture--and restricting the CIA in particular to interrogation methods listed in the Army Field Manual."
Moreover, Reuters notes, "Brennan told his confirmation hearing in 2013 he had not tried to stop harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding when he was at the spy agency earlier in his career, but had objected to them privately."
Damning first-person reports of the torture tactic, among other so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" put into practice under President George W. Bush, continue to emerge from those subjected to them.
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly affirmed his support for torture. "I would bring back waterboarding, and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding," he said two weeks ago, as Common Dreams reported.
"What do you think about waterboarding?" he asked the crowd at a rally. "I like it a lot," he said to cheers. "I don't think it's tough enough."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
CIA director John Brennan on Wednesday vowed to resign if he was ordered by the next president to have the CIA resume waterboarding detainees--but the agency could still take up the practice.
"If a president were to order, order the agency to carry out waterboarding or something else, it'll be up to the director of CIA and others within CIA to decide whether or not that, that direction and order is something that they can carry out in good conscience," Brennan said, according to The Intercept.
"I can say that as long as I'm director of CIA, irrespective of what the president says, I'm not going to be the director of CIA that gives that order. They'll have to find another director," he added, according to Reuters.
The remarks were presumably a response to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's past declarations of support for the torture method condemned by rights groups. They came at the end of a speech the CIA chief gave at the Brookings Institution.
The Intercept observed that Brennan "did not acknowledge that Congress last year turned Obama's anti-torture executive order into law, explicitly banning waterboarding and other forms of torture--and restricting the CIA in particular to interrogation methods listed in the Army Field Manual."
Moreover, Reuters notes, "Brennan told his confirmation hearing in 2013 he had not tried to stop harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding when he was at the spy agency earlier in his career, but had objected to them privately."
Damning first-person reports of the torture tactic, among other so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" put into practice under President George W. Bush, continue to emerge from those subjected to them.
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly affirmed his support for torture. "I would bring back waterboarding, and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding," he said two weeks ago, as Common Dreams reported.
"What do you think about waterboarding?" he asked the crowd at a rally. "I like it a lot," he said to cheers. "I don't think it's tough enough."
CIA director John Brennan on Wednesday vowed to resign if he was ordered by the next president to have the CIA resume waterboarding detainees--but the agency could still take up the practice.
"If a president were to order, order the agency to carry out waterboarding or something else, it'll be up to the director of CIA and others within CIA to decide whether or not that, that direction and order is something that they can carry out in good conscience," Brennan said, according to The Intercept.
"I can say that as long as I'm director of CIA, irrespective of what the president says, I'm not going to be the director of CIA that gives that order. They'll have to find another director," he added, according to Reuters.
The remarks were presumably a response to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's past declarations of support for the torture method condemned by rights groups. They came at the end of a speech the CIA chief gave at the Brookings Institution.
The Intercept observed that Brennan "did not acknowledge that Congress last year turned Obama's anti-torture executive order into law, explicitly banning waterboarding and other forms of torture--and restricting the CIA in particular to interrogation methods listed in the Army Field Manual."
Moreover, Reuters notes, "Brennan told his confirmation hearing in 2013 he had not tried to stop harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding when he was at the spy agency earlier in his career, but had objected to them privately."
Damning first-person reports of the torture tactic, among other so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" put into practice under President George W. Bush, continue to emerge from those subjected to them.
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly affirmed his support for torture. "I would bring back waterboarding, and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding," he said two weeks ago, as Common Dreams reported.
"What do you think about waterboarding?" he asked the crowd at a rally. "I like it a lot," he said to cheers. "I don't think it's tough enough."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.