McCain: We can't torture Americans
Good news if you're an American, I suppose. Otherwise?
Reporter: You oppose torture... Why doesn't the same principle apply to detainee enemy combatants, don't we stand for something better than...
McCain: Yes, and I’ve made it very clear, I’ve made it very clear in my statements and in my support of the Detainee Treatment Act, the Geneva Conventions, etc., that there may be some additional techniques to be used, but none of those would violate the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act…And we cannot ever, in my view, torture any American, that includes waterboarding.
He rather neatly avoids the whole point of the question, which was whether or not the principle applied to "enemy combatants". Of course, that shouldn't be too much of a surprise given he voted against banning the CIA from using "enhanced interrogation techniques", more commonly known by their non-euphemistic name of torture.
And as for not doing the same to American citizens, I think Jose Padilla might have something to say about that, were his mind not irretrievably broken.
