The Torture and the Hair

President Trump’s first sit down TV interview with David Muir of ABC resulted in a lot of headlines and head-scratching. First on the list of controversial statements was Trump’s belief in the effectiveness of torture: “I have spoken as recently as 24 hours ago with people at the highest level of intelligence. And I asked them the question, Does it work? Does torture work? And the answer was, Yes, absolutely.”

+ From Politico: “Defense Secretary James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, were ‘blindsided’ by reports of a draft executive order that would require the CIA to reconsider using interrogation techniques that some consider torture.” Both have advised against using torture (for ethical and effectiveness reasons). So who are the high level officials who said it does work? One of the problems is that the interview with Trump was littered with falsehoods, so it’s hard to know what to believe.

+ Is blocking refugees and considering the use of torture a solid strategy? From Robin Wright in The New Yorker: How To Lose The War On Terror: “Jihadi movements–the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and dozens of smaller groups–will almost certainly exploit the move as proof that the West is at war with world’s 1.7 billion Muslims.”

+ Quartz: Trump plans to block visas from seven Muslim-majority countries. The US is currently bombing five of them.

+ In other news, several members of the State Dept’s senior executive team have been asked to leave.