McCain: Army interrogation specialty neededBy Jim Davenport - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Dec 15, 2007 17:23:14 EST
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican White House hopeful John McCain said he wants “a crash program” in civilian and military schools that emphasizes language and creates a “new specialty in strategic interrogation” so the nation never feels the need for torture.
McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war who suffered mistreatment, talked about the new proposal at a Columbia campaign stop Saturday.
McCain said he wanted to create an Army Advisory Corps of 20,000 soldiers to act as military advisers and a new Office of Strategic Services to fight terrorists. He said he wanted them to pursue “a crash program in civilian and military schools” to prepare more experienced speakers in strategically important languages — such as Arabic, Chinese, Farsi and others — and to “create a new specialty in strategic interrogation — a new, a new group of strategic interrogators so that we never have to feel motivated to torture anyone ever again.”
When asked if he knew if U.S. forces had engaged in torture in the past, the Arizona senator said he didn’t.
“I do not know whether they’ve been involved in torture because I don’t have that kind of information,” McCain said. “I do know that when tapes are destroyed of interrogations, it contributes enormously to the cynicism, the skepticism and also is further damaging to the image of the United States of America in the world.”
Rest of article at:
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_mccaintorture_071215/