Trump Reportedly "Surprised" Top Contender to Run Pentagon Doesn't Support Torture

President-elect apparently thinks waterboarding is a much more acceptable form of abuse than the military man they call "Mad Dog"

by

Jon Queally, staff writer

According to the New York Times, Donald Trump confessed he was "surprised" when he discovered that one of his top choices for Defense Secretary, Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis, does not actually "favor" the torture tactic known as "waterboarding."

Amid an extensive interview with the Times editorial board and staff on Tuesday, reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted:

Maggie Haberman 

✔@maggieNYT

Trump says he is "seriously considering" Mattis for DoD, says he asked Mattis about waterboarding, was surprised he didn't favor it.

6:01 AM - 23 Nov 2016

Mattis, who travelled to Trump's New Jersey golf club over the weekend to meet with the president-elect, is seen as one of the top contenders to lead the Pentagon under Trump and, as Common Dreams reported earlier this week, has a reputation for backing an aggressive foreign policy. As journalist Jeremy Scahill noted, Mattis is known to believe "in the iron fist of U.S. militarism."

During the campaign, Trump made headlines by saying  he liked "waterboarding a lot" but that he actually thought it didn't go far enough. "I don't think it's tough enough," Trump said at one rally, indicating he would go further. As recently as this weekend, Vice President-Elect Mike Pence wouldn't rule out waterboarding in a Trump administration.

Though waterboarding was sanctioned by former President George W. Bush following the attacks of September 11, 2001, legal and human rights experts have categorically called the practice torture. Though President Obama ended the authorization for the CIA to conduct such torture, he chose not to prosecute those who ordered or carried out the abuse.

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