"Osama bin Laden’s welcome death has ignited debate over whether the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques used on enemy prisoners were instrumental in locating bin Laden, and whether they are a justifiable means for gathering intelligence. Much of this debate is a definitional one: whether any or all of these methods constitute torture. I believe some of them do, especially waterboarding, which is a mock execution and thus an exquisite form of torture. As such, they are prohibited by American laws and values, and I oppose them. … Mistreatment of enemy prisoners endangers our own troops, who might someday be held captive. While some enemies, and al-Qaeda surely, will never be bound by the principle of reciprocity, we should have concern for those Americans captured by more conventional enemies, if not in this war then in the next."

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Military leaders from the United StatesMembers of the United States SenateUnited States presidential candidates, 2000United States presidential candidates, 2008Politicians from Arizona
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Military leaders from the United StatesMembers of the United States SenateUnited States presidential candidates, 2000United States presidential candidates, 2008Politicians from Arizona

John McCain

politician, naval officer, autobiographer

1936 – 2018 · United States

John Sidney McCain III (29 August 1936 - 25 August 2018) was an American politician, statesman, and United States Navy officer who served as a United States Senator for Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and was the Republican nominee for president of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama.

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