HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — A leading Republican voice on national security matters says he doesn’t care what President-elect Donald Trump says, the United States will not reinstate waterboarding.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum that any attempt to bring back harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning, would quickly be challenged in court.
McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, says extreme interrogation techniques are banned under U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions.
During the campaign, Trump said he would push to change laws that prohibit waterboarding used against suspected terrorists during the George W. Bush administration.
McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, says waterboarding doesn’t work and makes it hard for the U.S. to claim moral superiority.
