Michael Hernandez
25 January 2017•Update: 27 January 2017
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump is weighing an overhaul of CIA policies that would see new detainees sent to the controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the re-opening of black sites around the world, according to multiple reports on Wednesday.
The draft memo also indicates that the U.S. could re-introduce new interrogation methods in-line with former President George W. Bush's policies.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Wednesday the memo "is not a White House document.
"I don’t know where it came from," Spicer said.
Former President Barack Obama ended both the black sites policy, and the "Enhanced Interrogation" program he inherited from his predecessor.
Trump pledged on the campaign trail to reinstate waterboarding as well as harsher interrogation practices.
Sen. John McCain, a victim of torture during the Vietnam War, and stalwart torture critic warned shortly after reports began to surface that Trump "can sign whatever executive orders he likes. But the law is the law."
"We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America," he said in a statement.
A 2015 law limits interrogation techniques to those within the Army Field Manual, which does not include waterboarding or other "enhanced" methods.
A damning Senate report on the program made public in 2014 found that the techniques were far more brutal than originally thought, and was ineffective in acquiring intelligence from detainees.
The draft memo calls for U.S. law to be adhered to and rejects "torture", according to the Associated Press who received the document from an unnamed U.S. official.
*Canberk Yuksel contributed to this report from New York City.
