CIA Head Rules Out Bringing Back Waterboarding

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan said he would not bring back detainee torture methods used at the notorious US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, such as the waterboarding interrogation technique, despite calls from US presidential hopefuls.

In recent months, Republican front-runner Donald Trump has advocated bringing back waterboarding terrorist suspects, while his rival Ted Cruz has said he does not define waterboarding as torture and voiced its support to keep the Gitmo detention facility open.

"I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure… I would not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again," Brennan told the NBC News broadcaster in an interview on Sunday.

President Barack Obama has described the scandal-tainted method of waterboarding as torture, and ended the practice that was widely used following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

A 2014 ABC News-Washington Post poll revealed that 58 percent of Americans believe that the torture of suspected terrorists can be often or sometimes justified. The study also found that nearly two-thirds of US citizens believe that previous CIA practices of torturing terrorist suspects produced valuable intelligence.