CIA director says, even if directed, his agency won't waterboard ever again

(Image credit: Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images)

published 11 April 2016

Even if a president orders it, CIA Director John Brennan says, the Central Intelligence Agency will never again use "enhanced interrogation" practices, including waterboarding.

"I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure," he told NBC News, later reiterating that he would "not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again." Waterboarding, banned by President Obama in 2009, is considered torture under international law, and was used by U.S. operatives after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on suspected terrorists.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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