The waterboarding interrogation technique, which consists of a series of \u201cnear drownings\u201d that left terror suspects \u201ccompletely unresponsive\u201d was not\u00a0 torture, former CIA Director Michael Hayden told Al Jazeera\u2019s Mehdi Hasan in a recent\u00a0interview<\/a>. He cited the conclusion of three attorneys general.<\/p>\n Is waterboarding torture?<\/a><\/p>\n “Do you think [waterboarding] is torture?” – Mehdi Hasan asks former CIA Director Michael Hayden. Watch the full episode: aje.io\/pr2d<\/p>\n Posted by UpFront<\/a> on Thursday, 31 March 2016<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hayden said, though, that the \u201ccurrent president of the United States\u201d<\/em> believes waterboarding is torture.<\/p>\n As for himself, Hayden said he \u201chas not been forced to take this decision.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I have done is reflect the legal opinion that was extant at the time these decisions were made,\u201d<\/em> the former CIA head said, noting he has been asked about his opinion on torture countless times.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Pressed by the interviewer, Michael Hayden said that should, for instance, President Bashar Assad use waterboarding on Syrian rebels, it would be a \u201ccompletely different\u201d<\/em> story, since the CIA did waterboarding with medical personnel present and counted the \u201cpours sessions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIf President Assad did it according to the rules the CIA used, if President Assad did it with medical personnel present\u2026 this is the CIA way,\u201d<\/em> Hayden told Al Jazeera\u2019s Mehdi Hasan.<\/p>\n The American nation felt itself \u201cunder very serious threat\u201d<\/em> when CIA agents were prying vital information out of three prisoners, he insisted.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s torture. You\u2019re not going to get me to say it\u2019s torture,\u201d<\/em> Hayden concluded.<\/p>\n An executive summary of a 6,700-page US Senate Intelligence report on CIA interrogation techniques under the George W. Bush administration made public last year exposed brutality the US authorities were probably unaware of, sparking outrage in the US and around the world.<\/p>\n US federal judges are now in the process of making a decision on whether to declassify the report in full, which would reveal whether the CIA abused its authority while interrogating suspects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is waterboarding torture? The CIA ex-chief, in an interview with Al Jazeera, believes it depends on who uses it. Should Syria\u2019s Assad administer it \u2013 then it\u2019s torture. If the CIA uses it on terror suspects possessing \u201clifesaving\u201d data \u2013 it\u2019s not. The waterboarding interrogation technique, which consists of a series of \u201cnear drownings\u201d that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-235872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/news\/34\/40\/f0\/00\/cia-directors-waterboarding-torture.n.jpg\")
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