Trump administration’s stance on ‘brutal’ torture condemned

The Trump administration’s permissive stance on torture regarded as brutal even in medieval times is shameful, according to a Fife academic.

Dr Rory Cox said those who condoned, or sought to condone, waterboarding should be prosecuted.

A study by researchers at St Andrews University highlighted a trend towards considering the technique for extracting information in the US.

Dr Cox, lecturer in late medieval history at the university, said: “Since the Middle Ages, waterboarding has been judged to be worse than flogging, racking and the strappado: techniques that any sane person in a modern liberal democracy would baulk at defending or excusing.

“This history seriously undermines re-imaginings of waterboarding as ‘torture lite’.

“If even medieval society – so commonly condemned as barbaric – recognised the brutality of waterboarding, then we should be ashamed that in the 21st Century some are willing to condone it.

“Those who have authorised or employed waterboarding, or would seek to do so, violate US domestic law and international law.

“Such individuals should be criminally prosecuted; they should not lead the US’s foremost intelligence agency or sit in the Oval Office.”

The research published in the journal International Relations refers to evidence of waterboarding from premodern Europe, when it was understood as a severe form of torture and the modern re-emergency and endorsement by US security agencies.

Picture: Getty. Donald Trump’s administration has taken a permissive stance torwards waterboarding.