McCain blasts Republicans for ‘loose talk’ on torture

On the day of the New Hampshire primary, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sharply criticizes current Republican presidential candidates for their positions favoring waterboarding. (Photo: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Former GOP presidential nominee and prisoner of war John McCain wants Republicans seeking the White House to stop speaking so casually in favor of waterboarding, a form of torture which was used to interrogate prisoners in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and was found to be in violation of international human rights standards.

The issues of torture and waterboarding have been a surprise focus heading into Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary. On Monday night, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump “had a lot of fun” repeating a vulgar word used by a supporter to describe opponent Ted Cruz because the Texas senator hedged on a waterboarding question in Saturday night’s debate. Cruz said of waterboarding that he would not “bring it back in any sort of widespread use.” While Cruz left the door open to the maligned practice in some cases, Trump has supported its return unequivocally.

And McCain is clearly not happy with where the Republican primary race has landed on an issue he cares about deeply and personally. McCain, a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, was a prisoner for more than five years. He has since been dedicated to ensuring the United States does not resume torturing captives.

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“I know in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, many Americans feel again the grave urgency that we felt 15 years ago. But I dispute wholeheartedly that it was right for our nation to use these interrogation methods then or that is right for our nation to use them now. Waterboarding or any other form of torture is not in the best interest of justice, nor our security, nor the ideals we have sacrificed so much blood and treasure to defend,” McCain said on the Senate floor Tuesday, acknowledging the importance of New Hampshire’s primary, which he won in both 2000 and 2008.

“This question isn’t about our enemies. It’s about us. It’s about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. It’s about how we represent ourselves to the world. We’ve made our way in this often dangerous and cruel world not by just strictly pursuing our geopolitical interests but by exemplifying our political values in influencing other nations to embrace them,” McCain continued. “When we fight to defend our security, we fight also for an idea that all men are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights. That’s all men and women. How much safer the world would be if all nations believed the same? How much more dangerous it can become, when we forget it ourselves, even momentarily, as we learned at Abu Ghraib?”

Abu Ghraib was the prison in Iraq where the United States Army and Central Intelligence Agency were found to have committed human rights violations by interrogating prisoners with methods that met the international definitions of torture, including waterboarding.

Even the Republican establishment’s current favorite candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, has spoken in uncritical terms about future use of what the George W. Bush administration referred to euphemistically as “enhanced interrogation methods.”

In a May speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, Rubio addressed the utility of Guantánamo Bay, another U.S. base where torture was determined to have occurred in the 2000s, claiming it was “the only place” where the United States effectively gathered intelligence.

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As Yahoo News reported then, Rubio said, “I believe that innocent people, peace-loving people deserve to have their rights respected. And I think terrorists who plot to kill Americans and actively are engaged in plots to attack America deserve to be in prison and taken off the battlefield. And that’s the role that Guantánamo plays. It was also the only place where we were able to gather intelligence. Today we’re not gathering nearly enough intelligence.”

Of course, the U.S. military and intelligence communities have been able to gather information from sources around the world. And Rubio’s beliefs stand in contrast to McCain’s, who used his floor speech Tuesday to implore fellow Republicans to reconsider their positions.

“These forms of torture not only fail their purpose to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the United States and our allies but compromised our values, stained our national honor and did little practical good,” McCain said. “I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. … Now candidates are saying they will disregard the law. I thought that was our complaint with the present president of the United States.”

McCain was alluding to President Obama’s executive orders on domestic issues that have been decried by Republicans in Washington and on the trail. As a candidate, Obama had promised to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay on “day one” of his administration but has yet to do so.