Despite some candidates in the ongoing 2016 presidential elections stating they would bring back waterboarding and other forms of "enhanced" interrogation techniques, CIA Director John Brennan declared that the agency will never resort to those methods again - even if the president himself decrees it.
"I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure," the CIA director said in an interview.
Waterboarding was used infamously after the 9/11 attacks, with the CIA utilizing the aggressive interrogation technique in order to force information out of terror suspects. Due to its nature, which involves a very real simulation of drowning, the practice has been branded as a form of torture by many, ultimately being banned by international law.
Plus, its effectiveness was deemed questionable by critics as well, who stated that terror suspects who were waterboarded did not really give up sensitive information anyway.
Thus, immediately after current U.S. President Barack Obama took power back in 2009, he immediately banned waterboarding, together with other harsh interrogations, from being conducted by authorities. During that time, Obama stated that waterboarding and the other aggressive techniques amounted to no less than torture.
With the 2016 presidential elections underway, however, candidates, especially from the Republican side, have made it known that they intend to reinforce aggressive interrogation practices again.
GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who is famous for his strong rhetoric, has stated that waterboarding, as well as other interrogation methods he characterized as "as hell of a lot worse," would be used to draw information out of terror suspects under his administration.
Trump's main rival on the GOP side, Ted Cruz, also doubled up on the waterboarding stance. Though he stated he would not bring waterboarding back to any "widespread use," he nonetheless does not consider the practice as a form of torture.
Cruz also said he would "use whatever enhanced interrogation methods to keep this country safe."
As it turns out, however, even if Trump or Cruz becomes president, waterboarding, together with a number of other questionable and aggressive forms of interrogation, would not see the light of day.
Not if CIA Director Brennan could help it.
