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| FBI director nominee says waterboarding is torture |
| 2013-07-10 |
James Comey, the man nominated by President Barack ObamaI've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... to be the next FBI director, said on Tuesday that he believed the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique was torture and illegal. Comey, the former deputy attorney general from 2003-2005, told senators at a confirmation hearing that he had made his views known when he was serving in the George W. Bush administration but lost battles to stop the CIA from using so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding and sleep deprivation on enemy combatants. Comey became known for refusing to certify the legal aspects of National Security Agency domestic surveillance during a 2004 stint as acting attorney general while then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was seriously ill in the hospital. Though many of the questions posed to Comey were in relation to his views on interrogation techniques, some senators asked about surveillance programs like those recently disclosed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Comey, who has been out of government for eight years, said he could not comment on the specifics of the programs. But he said the collection and analysis of metadata like telephone and email logs are valuable tools in counter-terrorism work. The candidate was also questioned about the use of drones, which Mueller said last month have been used on U.S. soil for some limited law enforcement activities. Comey is expected to be approved by the Judiciary Committee easily, and the full Senate is expected to follow suit before Mueller's term expires in September. |
| Posted by:Pappy |