Interrogators, torture victims want old McCain back

“I join my voice with Joshua and the thousands around the country who are calling for Sen. McCain to go back and to clarify, and to speak as he spoke at one time simply to say that torture cannot be justified,” said former torture victim and Purple Heart Recipient Father Roy Bourgeois. He, and others spoke in a teleconference to discuss what they see as Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) policy shift on the use of torture as interrogation techniques.

Joshua Casteel, a former U.S. military interrogator who served at the Abu Ghraib prison camp said that he was initially very proud to hear from Captain Ian Fishback, who publicized the views of McCain against torture techniques. He said these views contrasted those of Vice President Dick Cheney. Casteel went on to say that McCain seems to have changed his tune. He concluded by saying, “As a former interrogator myself, and with friends of interrogators and torturers, we are simply saying we want old Senator McCain back.”

USAction Program Director Alan Charney also stated that Sen. McCain is the only US senator to have changed his position on the issue, referencing McCain’s decision to negotiate with President Bush over habeas corpus legislation, and his decision to vote against legislation containing provisions that would have prevented the CIA from waterboarding prisoners. This past month, McCain also blasted the Supreme Court for its ruling in Boumediene v. Bush, holding that the executive branch must respect habeas corpus rights even when dealing with enemy combatants.