US uses waterboarding to ‘terrorize people’: Analyst

The United States uses waterboarding and other forms of torture against terrorist suspects to control and terrorize innocent people, not to gain valuable information, says Stephen Lendman, a journalist and political analyst based in Chicago.

US President Donald Trump's willingness to reinstate waterboarding against terrorist suspects indicates that the new American leader is preparing to bring back one of the most infamous policies of former US President George W. Bush, Lendman said during an interview with Press TV on Thursday.

Waterboarding, which mimics the sensation of drowning, was first allowed during former the Bush administration for terror suspects captured after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The brutal practice was finally banned by the Bush administration in 2006. In January 2009, former US President Barack Obama issued a similar ban on the use of waterboarding and other forms of torture.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and several senior officials in the Bush administration were strong proponents of waterboarding. Cheney has stated since leaving office that he does not consider waterboarding to be torture.

“I’m fearful we will see a continuation of Bush, Cheney and Obama,” Lendman said. “There is no evidence at all that all the torture that’s been committed by Bush, Cheney and Obama turned up any vital information or any information of any sort that the government could use.”

“The main reason America uses torture is not to get information, it’s for control, it’s to scare people, it’s to terrorize people," he added.

During an interview with ABC News on Wednesday at the White House, Trump said he thinks torture “absolutely” works.

“I have spoken as recently as 24 hours ago 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,’” the new president said.

Trump said waterboarding is useful against Daesh (ISIL) terrorist who are “chopping off the heads of our people and other people.”

During his presidential campaign, Trump pledged to bring back the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques.

But Trump's position on the use of waterboarding seems to differ from some of his cabinet picks. During his confirmation hearing to become CIA director, Mike Pompeo said he would not comply if Trump issued a presidential order calling for the reinstatement of torture techniques.

The Trump administration is also reviewing whether to resume the CIA’s once-secret “black site” detention program outside the US.

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