Washington(D.C.)[US]: An executive order drafted by the Donald Trump administration called for a policy review that could authorize the CIA to reopen “black site” prisons overseas and potentially restart an interrogation program that was dismantled in 2009 after using methods widely condemned as torture.
According to the Washington Post, the document, a copy of which would revoke former president Barack Obama’s decision to end the CIA program and would require national security officials to evaluate whether the agency should resume interrogating terrorism suspects.
The unsigned draft represents the clearest signal from President Trump that he intends to at least explore ways to fulfill campaign vows to return the CIA to a role that supporters claim produced critical intelligence on Al-Qaeda but that ended in a swirl of criminal investigations, strained relationships with allies, and laws banning the use of waterboarding and other brutal interrogation tactics.(ANI)