CIA chief vows no torture of detainees on his watch

By Kasim Ileri

WASHINGTON (AA) – The head of the CIA said Wednesday that he would not order torture against a suspect even if the demand came from the U.S president.

The comments by John Brennan, which took aim at Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, came during a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution think tank where he laid out challenges his agency faces.

“I believe that those EITs [Enhanced Interrogation Techniques] are not necessary and I know that there has been calls for—you know – waterboarding or worse whatever else,” he said, referring to Trump’s stance that he would implemented the outlawed techniques if he were president.

“As long as I am director of CIA we are not going to go down that step once again.”

The CIA chief said enhanced interrogation techniques were “instrumental” in keeping the U.S. safe in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but noted that misconduct by agents led the agency to “suffer a great cost”.

The CIA and U.S. military agencies reportedly subjected terror suspects to systematic torture in order to extract information on terror plots.

Methods used included beating, stress positions, hooding, deafening noise, sleep deprivation and hunger as well as waterboarding, and sexual humiliation.

Trump vowed to “bring back a hell of a lot worse” and said he would also target the families of terrorists.

Elaborating on the CIA’s interaction and cooperation with the governments in the Middle East, Brennan said the agency has “critical cooperation with Turkey” in counterterrorism, particularly the fight against Daesh.

Turkey is not only fighting Daesh but is also engaged in a fight with the PKK terrorist group that is so designated by the U.S. and European Union.

According to Brennan, the U.S. shares Turkey’s concerns with respect to the Syrian war and PKK terrorism but he noted that the two states have disagreements.

Ankara is unhappy about U.S. support for PYD and YPG militants, which are PKK’s affiliates in Syria.

But the Pentagon defends its backing of the Kurdish militant groups in Syria as part of its fight against Daesh rather than the groups’ separatist motivations in Turkey.

Brennan said disagreements between the two NATO allies have not effected relations between the intelligence agencies of the two countries.

“I have a very close relation with my Turkish counterpart,” he said.