Rep. Peter King: CIA Didn’t Torture People, Just Made Them ‘Stand in Awkward Positions’

Incoming New Republic editor Peter King (R-NY) disputed the notion that the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques, gruesomely detailed in the Senate Intelligence Committee report released yesterday, constituted “torture.” The comments came in a NewsMaxTV interview first spotted Wednesday by BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski.

“I don’t believe these are torture at all,” King said. “For instance waterboarding — there were medical personnel present during the whole time. It creates tremendous, discomfort there’s no doubt about it. It creates tremendous fear. But the fact is there was no lasting damage to these people and we got information from them, which is very helpful.” (The report actually found that torture was ineffective in obtaining valuable intelligence from detainees.)

RELATED: The Value of the CIA Torture Report, in One Morning Joe Segment

“We’re not talking about anyone being burned or stabbed or cut or anything like that,” King continued. “We’re talking about people being made to stand in awkward in positions, have water put into their nose and into their mouth. Nobody suffered any lasting injuries from this.”

King was last seen arguing that Eric Garner basically killed himself against an NYPD officer’s arm.

Listen below, if that’s your thing:

[h/t BuzzFeed]

[Image via screengrab]

——
>> Follow Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!