CIA Director Says He Refuses to Bring Back Waterboarding

The head of the CIA said the federal intelligence agency would defy orders from the next president to use harsh interrogation strategies, including waterboarding.

CIA Director John Brennan will not allow the agency to engage in “enhanced interrogation” practices that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said he’d authorize if elected, he told NBC News. “I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I’ve heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure,” Brennan said. “Absolutely, I would not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again.”

Trump has defended the use of torture and killing terrorists’ families, even saying America “should go tougher than waterboarding” — a practice banned in 2009. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has said he doesn’t consider waterboarding as a form of torture but doesn’t want to “bring it back in any sort of widespread use.” However, at a debate in February, Cruz said he was “use whatever enhanced interrogation methods we could to keep this country safe.”

[NBC]