Donald Trump ‘plans to reopen CIA black sites’ and says he wants to bring back torture of Islamic radicals to ‘fight fire with fire’
The President revealed he wants to do everything possible to stop the spread of radicalism in the US
DONALD Trump had declared he believes "torture works" and he wants to "fight fire with fire" in the US's battle against Islamic extremism.
His comments come in the wake of reports a draft executive order has been prepared which will allow the CIA to reopen notorious 'black site" overseas prisons.
"Black site" prisons are like those which were used to waterboard and detain terrorist suspects - they were shut down by former US President Barack Obama.
The President, who has given an extensive interview with , regarding his new policies, told interviewer David Muir he will speak with Defense Secretary James Mattis, and CIA director Mike Pompeo to see what can and can't be done legally to stop the spread of radicalism.
In the interview, Trump said "people at the highest level of intelligence" told him torture works. It is something military experts have claimed is incorrect.
He added: "When ISIS is doing things that no one has ever heard of, since medieval times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding?
It claimed a three-page draft order had been prepared which was called the “Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants.”
However the order, has been branded inaccurate by the Trump administration.
On Wednesday White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said: "It is not a White House document. I have no idea where it came from. But it is not a White House document,' Spicer declared.'
Several news outlets reported the "draft order" would undo many of the other restrictions on handling detainees that Obama originally put in place in the wake of policies by the George W. Bush administration.
Trump would revoke Obama’s directive to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all detainees in American custody if he signed it.
This would be another step on the road to reopening secret prisons which can operate outside normal wartime rules which were put in place by the Geneva Conventions.
However statutory obstacles remain.
The document also outlined that Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, which Obama refused to send detainees to, directed the Pentagon to continue using the site “for the detention and trial of newly captured” detainees.
This was in reference to suspected members of Al Qaeda or the Taliban and Islamic State detainees.
During his campaign Trump was vocal on his thoughts about methods of questioning suspects, and vowed to bring back waterboarding and a “hell of a lot worse.”
He said he planned to do this because torture works,” and even “if it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway.”
Elisa Massimino, the director of Human Rights First, told the paper the draft order was “flirting with a return to the ‘enhanced interrogation program’ and the environment that gave rise to it.”
She added: “It would be surprising and extremely troubling if the national security cabinet officials were to acquiesce in an order like that after the assurances that they gave in their confirmation hearing."
The reports on the draft came as Trump signed an executive order to build the wall on the Mexican border on Wednesday.