Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Angus King wrote a letter requesting President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, to clarify his views about enhanced interrogation techniques.
Feinstein, a Democrat from California, led a multiyear investigation into the use of controversial interrogation methods such as waterboarding that were used on accused terrorists during George W. Bush’s presidency. She and King, an independent from Maine, said in the Wednesday letter that Ratcliffe’s responses to the Senate Intelligence Committee have been “evasive and noncommittal.”
The senators said that in responding to a written query about whether Ratcliffe found any of the prior enhanced interrogation techniques “consistent” with national or international prohibitions on torture, he evaded a clear response.
“Rather than answer directly with either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ to a question that has both moral and legal dimensions, you responded only that you had ‘not conducted the legal and factual research and analysis that would be required to properly answer this question,’” the letter said.
“During your confirmation hearing, when asked by Senator King whether you personally believed that waterboarding was a violation of anti-torture law, you again refused to answer directly, saying only that, ‘The law makes clear in several places that torture is illegal.’ In fact, we agree with you that U.S. law clearly outlaws all torture, as do several U.S. treaty obligations,” the two said in the letter. “However, Senator King’s question deserves a clear and unequivocal answer since President Trump has vowed to ‘bring back waterboarding [and] bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.’”
Ratcliffe, who is a Republican congressman from Texas, was also asked in the letter if he believes that “there are any circumstances in which current law could be interpreted to justify the use of interrogation practices other than those listed in the U.S. Army Field Manual.”
Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, was chosen this year to serve as acting director of national intelligence. Ratcliffe, who currently sits on the House Intelligence Committee, will take over Grenell’s role if he is confirmed by the Senate. The position entails overseeing the country’s 17 spy agencies.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Ratcliffe’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
