Media reports indicate US President Donald Trump is considering executive orders that include reviewing whether to resume the once-secret “black site” detention program; revise the Army Field Manual to determine whether certain “enhanced interrogation techniques” can be used to allow coercive methods; and keeping open the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Some reports also made public a draft order directing a policy review that will recommend to the president whether to “reinstate” a program of interrogation of “high-value terrorists” abroad operated by the CIA.In an ABC News interview on 25 January President Trump insisted that torture “works,” claiming his advisors told him so. Despite torture being illegal under US and international law, the claim that it works flies in the face of the conclusions of the more than 6,000-page Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA torture program, which found, based on extensive evidence, that the program was not an effective means of obtaining accurate information or gaining detainee cooperation. Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, reportedly told Trump he had “never found” waterboarding to be useful. And just a few weeks ago, a group of 176 retired generals wrote to Trump to tell him that torture was counterproductive to US national security and that “lawful, rapport-based interrogation techniques are the most effective way to elicit actionable intelligence.”
Reaction from Laura Pitter, US national security counsel at Human Rights Watch:
The Trump administration should not even think about bringing back secret prisons or torture techniques, no matter what they call them. The CIA’s use of black sites, enforced disappearance and torture in the last decade was not only illegal but deeply damaging to the reputation and national security of the United States.
Scores of men were subjected to brutal interrogation methods that were not only illegal but also ineffective in gathering useful intelligence, and caused the US to waste resources by pursuing false leads. US law is clear that the Army Field Manual cannot be modified for at least two years, and even then only to ensure it complies with US domestic and international legal obligations. Even if the manual were modified to allow coercive techniques, these would still be illegal under longstanding US and international law. Anyone who engages in torture, as well as those who order or authorize it, also faces criminal liability.
Any order to keep the Guantanamo Bay detention facility open would be a terrible mistake. Guantanamo is a potent symbol of injustice, inhumane detentions, and torture. The military commissions there are fundamentally flawed and have deprived the families of 9/11 victims of seeing justice done. US federal courts have proven very capable of handling these cases effectively and with respect for due process. The draft order cites misleading statistics on the number of those released from Guantanamo who have “returned” to the fight, which additionally conflate the number of those who are confirmed and suspected of having done so. Further, keeping individuals in Guantanamo due to the actions of others amounts to collective punishment and denies the men held there fair process. Trump should be working to close Guantanamo and fully restore the role of federal courts in terrorism cases, not sending more people to be unjustly imprisoned there. – Human Rights Watch
