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        UN Torture Envoy Concerned at Waterboarding Rhetoric in US Race

   by Reuters

   The U.N. torture investigator voiced concern on Wednesday at calls by
   some Republican candidates in the U.S. presidential race to authorize
   waterboarding in interrogating detainees, noting that it was illegal
   under domestic and international law.

   Republican candidate Donald Trump softened his stance on torture last
   Friday, saying he would not order the U.S. military to break
   international laws on how to treat terrorism suspects. The night
   before, he indicated he might order U.S. military to break the law on
   interrogation tactics, including waterboarding.

   Trump's rival and number two in the Republican primaries, Senator Ted
   Cruz of Texas, said last month he would only allow limited use of the
   practice. He said he didn't believe waterboarding met the international
   definition for torture.

   ''"Candidates in the United States have again discussed whether
   waterboarding is torture or not and have actually promised to bring it
   back and to bring even harsher techniques," Juan Mendez, U.N. special
   rapporteur on torture, told a news briefing in Geneva.

   The Bush administration allowed the use of waterboarding - the practice
   of pouring water over a cloth covering a detainee's face to mimic the
   sensation of drowning - around conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
   President Barack Obama banned it days after taking office in 2009.

   "The Bush administration itself had withdrawn the torture memos when it
   was discovered that these things were happening as a matter of policy,"
   Mendez said. "Even the Republican administration had already recognized
   that these things are illegal."

   "They are illegal as a matter of international law, they are illegal as
   a matter of constitutional law in the United States, they are illegal
   as a matter of military law...and they are immoral anyway," he said.

   Speaking as a U.S. citizen, rather than in his U.N. role, he said:
   "Yes, I think the damage in the standing of the United States as a
   law-abiding nation and as an example to other states to fight crime and
   terrorism within the strictures of the rule of law is very seriously
   damaged by this kind of rhetoric."

   The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report in 2014, despite
   the objection of Republicans, that detailed what it called torture
   tactics used by the Central Intelligence Agency, including extensive
   use of waterboarding.

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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/un-torture-envoy-concerned-at-waterboarding-rhetoric-in-us-race/3227327.html