McCain: Don't use torture to get info

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says the United States should cease the use of such techniques as waterboarding to obtain information from prisoners.

McCain told CNN Thursday he opposes the use of waterboarding and other "cruel and inhumane" techniques to obtain information from prisoners for a variety of reasons.

"I had to speak out because I do feel strongly … it really is about the moral standing of the United States of America in the world," McCain said.

He said such techniques often provide incorrect information because the subject of the torture will often say anything if he thinks it will end his suffering.

"This is one of the problems in torturing people," McCain said. "You get good information and you get bad information also … it's pretty clear you could have gotten the same good information through using standard techniques, which don't entail waterboarding and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment."

In an opinion piece he wrote for The Washington Post, McCain said even though al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden eluded capture for nearly a decade "he lived long enough to witness what some are calling the Arab Spring, the complete repudiation of his violent ideology."

"Former attorney general Michael Mukasey recently claimed that 'the intelligence that led to bin Laden . . . began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information -- including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden.' That is false," McCain wrote.

Bin Laden was killed May 2 in an attack on his Pakistan compound by U.S forces.

McCain, who was a pisoner of war during the Vietnam War, said another reason not to torture prisoners is that the same techniques could be used on U.S. soldiers who might be taken hostage.