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| US SecDef James Mattis |
US defense chief James Mattis still favors the current rules banning the use of torture in prisoner interrogations, the Pentagon said Thursday, the day after President Donald Trump reaffirmed his belief it "absolutely" works.
In a written response to questions during his confirmation hearing, Mattis said he supported using the US Army Field Manual, which forbids torture, as the single standard for military interrogations.
"That thinking has not changed," Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said. "His commitment to upholding the Geneva convention, the law of armed conflicts, international law and US -- that remains the same."
The army's rules on interrogations apply across the US government, including the Central Intelligence Agency, which had employed waterboarding -- a form of near-drowning -- and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" on terror suspects after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The methods, widely denounced as torture, were banned in 2009 shortly after then president Barack Obama took office.
Read the full story at SpaceDaily