The U.S. bishops' conference has condemned the use of enhanced interrogation techniques for years, particularly after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released part of its 2014 report on CIA's use of interrogation in the years following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"The acts of torture described in the Senate Intelligence Committee's report violated the God-given human dignity inherent in all people and were unequivocally wrong," stated Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, who was chair of the U.S. bishops' international justice and peace committee at the time.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis on October 2017, Bishop Cantú affirmed American bishops' support for "legislation to make torture, which some euphemistically refer to as 'enhanced interrogation,' illegal."
President Barack Obama prohibited the CIA and military from using waterboarding and similar interrogation techniques when he took office in 2009. During a debate during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump said that he supported reinstituting the use of waterboarding "and more."
"Current U.S. law is clear in banning enhanced interrogation techniques. Any nominee for Director of the CIA must pledge without reservation to uphold this prohibition, which has helped us to regain our position of leadership in the struggle for universal human rights-the struggle upon which this country was founded, and which remains its highest aspiration," said Senator John McCain in a statement released shortly after Trump announced Haspel as his pick for CIA Director on March 13.
"Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program during the confirmation process," continued McCain.
"The torture of detainees in U.S. custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," said McCain, who was himself a victim of torture during the Vietnam War.
"In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, our government squandered precious moral authority in a futile effort to produce intelligence by means of torture. We are still dealing with the consequences of that desperately misguided decision," McCain added.
Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against any type of torture in a 2007 address, "I reiterate that the prohibition against torture 'cannot be contravened under any circumstances."
John Paul II presented an even more vivid condemnation in a speech in 1982, "With regard to torture, the Christian is confronted from his childhood with the reading of the passion of Christ. The memory of Jesus stripped naked, hit, mocked while suffering his agony, should always make him refuse to see similar treatment applied to one of his brothers in humanity."
If confirmed, Haspel will be the first female director in CIA history. At 61, she has had an extensive career within the spy agency, which she has worked for since 1985.
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Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.