>> i would bring back waterboarding and i would bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding. amy: in the final republican debate before the new hampshire primary, donald trump and his rivals promise to bring back waterboarding and expand guantanamo. >> the bigger problem with all of this, we're not interrogating anybody right now. guantanamo is being emptied by this president. we should be putting people into guantanamo and should not be releasing these killers who are rejoining the battlefield against the united states. amy: as north korea launches a long range googler test, republican candidates threat to launch primitive strikes against north korea. >> united states is going to have to get the united states back into the game. if a preemptive strike is necessary to keep us safe, we should do it. amy: than to super bowl 50. we will talk concussions, protests, and beyonce's have time homage to the black panthers. we will speak to sports writer dave zirin. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. two

the question last night about waterboarding. as far as i am concerned, waterboarding immediately is ok. and everyone was shocked and they liked it. in life and in business, you have to know -- politically correct, no one wants to be politically correct that the man with the red hat saying make america great again. important. i gave an answer to that question -- we cannot be politically correct. we don't have the time or the strength to be politically correct. you want to be good people. that is ok. they are doing such a horrible thing. when they are willing to fly airplanes into the world trade center come into the pentagon,

you said, i would bring back waterboarding and i would brink back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding. what did you have in mind? >> i said before that we're living in a world where in the middle east they're cutting people's heads off. they're chopping a christian's head off. many of them. we talk about foley, james boom, they're chopping heads. i said, yes, i would bring back waterboarding. i would make it a hell of a lot worse. >> what did you have in mind? >> i had in mind going worse than waterboarding. it's enough. we have a country under siege it's under siege from a people. we're like living in medieval times. if i have it to do, if it's up to me, i would absolutely bring back waterboarding. if it's tougher than that, i would bring it back, too. >> so as president, you would authorize torture? >> i would absolutely authorize something beyond waterboarding. it will be effective. if we need information. george, you have our enemy cutting heads off of christians and plenty of others, but the hundreds. by the thousands. >> do we win by being more like them? >> yes, i'm sorry. you

so i didn't use waterboarding. i was part of the administration when we took waterboarding off the table. but that's because i had different circumstances than georgetown ten e tenet had. i had more penetrations with al qaeda and better knowledge of their threat profile and had more legal restrictses. congress had actually taken some steps, and so i removed it become but that was no judgment on what had gone on before. and when people ask me, would you have done it? my answer is, in this is from the heart, my answer is, i thank god i never had to make that decision, and for those who are quick to criticize, they may want to thank god, too, that someone else stepped up and made that tough call. >> host: which is kind of what some aspects of intelligence are about, making decisions that nobody else well make. >> guest: in an infinite gray area as you know. >> host: absolutely. let me ask you about khalid khad shake sheikh mohammad. there was a dispute ongoing, i speaks, whether or not he being the only person who was

i would certainly approve waterboarding. our enemies laugh at us. they say, waterboarding? they don't view that as real torture. they say waterboarding and they chop off heads. they think we're so stupid. you no idea. the enemy we're fighting. no wonder they're doing so well. with this kind of thinking, that's why they're doing so well. >> there was an issue that came up last night. you said you were always against the iraq war. fact-checkers have gone through and haven't seen any stapletements from you until after the war began. >> in 2003-2004, i was against it. i wasn't a politician. i was a businessman. >> i interviewed you in 1999. you were thinking of running for president then. >> i was, actually. maybe i should have done it. i like this one better. i like this time better. but the fact is, in 2003, 2004, i was very much opposed to the iraq war. i said it would destabilize the middle east. it did. >> let's talk about another a social issue on voters' minds right now. last sunday, on fox news sunday, you said you would strongly consider appointing supreme court justic

i didn't use waterboarding, i was part of the administration with we took waterboarding off the table. that's because i had different circumstances than george had and more penetration of al qaeda and better knowledge of their threat profile and more restrictions and congress had taken steps i removed it and no judgment on what had gone on before it. when people asked me when would you have done it, this is in the heart and i repeat this in the bock, i said my answer is i thank god i never had to make that decision. for those who are quick to criticize, they may want to thank god too. that someone else stepped up an made that u tough call. which is kind of what someses pects of intelligence are about making decisions that nobody else will make. >> in an indefinite gray area jim as you know. >> let me ask you about khalid sheikh muhammad there was a dispute about he being the only person who was waterboarded a substantial number of times is distinct from once or twice, whether or not the boarding of him produced information from him that did, in fact, help us lead to osama bin laden's

and a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding. (laughter) >> trevor: donald trump is like a really evil little kid -- oh, yeah? i'll bring back double-waterboarding! who's your dad?! this may sound like another one of trump's vague campaign promises but his plans for torturing detainees are quite specific. he plans to round up people from all over the world, deny food for days on end, force them to shave their hair, strip them to their underwear, make them parade around in front of people and subject them to harsh interrogation about their beliefs on the world and even if they fully cooperate, after they've been released, someone would say, i'm so sorry, there's been a mistake, i'm so, so sorry, you have to go back in. (laughter) so for trump and cruz, the question is should the u.s. conduct torture or more torture. both positions are fairly extreme, but as donald trump keeps showing, only one can be the extreme-est. >> the other night at the debate they asked ted cruz a serious question, what do you think of waterboarding, is it

one of the crimes was waterboarding.ranty you, that when someone is subjected to torture and by the way, this is a near-death experience, then they will tell that person who is administering that anything they want to hear. and when someone says it led to osama bin laden, they're lying. and so, what we got was a whole lot of bad information from these people who just told whatever they thought the intear bate tore wanted to -- interrogator wanted to hear. are we going to subject people to torture? is that what the united states is all about? i tell you what general petraeus told me this morning, the best way of to get information be a friend of that prisoner, develop relationship over time. that is what works. andrea: do you grief administration officials in the bush administration, former attorney general, do you believe they are lying? >> no, i believe they are in violation of the law. they're in violation of the geneva conventions and i believe that they're lying when they said they got useful information. in fact i k

waterboarding is so terrible. even though they're chopping off heads, waterboarding is terrible.dn't answer the question. then they asked me what do you think about waterboarding? i say i think it's great but i don't think it goes far enough. true, right? [crowd chanting "u.s.a.] "u.s.a."]chanting we don't go far enough. and now the press will write trump is a mean guy. i'm not a mean guy. i'm just a guy that doesn't want to be pushed by animals. these are animals. [applause] so there won't be anymore fords going mexico. there won't be anymore different trades. i don't eat nabisco. i don't eat oreos which is a good thing not a bad thing. when they announced they're moving their plant to mexico, it's not going happen. it's not going happy. karl icon he endorsed me. we have some of the most important deals we're making now are trade deals. to me security is the most important thing always, ok? just so you know. just so you know. cnn did a pole and they said -- poll and they said trump for the military is the best. trump for the economy is the best. i don't mean by a little bit. i m

i said, yes, i would bring back waterboarding. i would make it a hell of a lot worse. >> i had in mind going worse than water-boarding. it's enough. we have a country under siege from a people. we're living in medieval times. if i have it to do, if it's up to me, i would absolutely bring back waterboarding. if it's tougher than that, i would bring it back, too. >> you would authorize torture. >> i would absolutely authorize something beyond waterboarding. it will be effective. george, you have our enemy cutting heads off of christians or others. >> do we wip by being more like them? >> yes, i'm sorry. you have to do it that way. i'm not sure everybody agrees with me. i'm sure people don't. we're living in a time that's as evil as any time that has ever been. when i was a young man, i studied medieval times. that's what they did. chopped off heads. we're going to do things beyond waterboarding. i thought ted's answer was tent he gave a tentative answer. if we have to, we're going to have to do more. when you have conditions like th

you said t tre is a lot of eyebrows about waterboarding. >> i would bring back waterboarding and i would bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding. >> okay. what's the worse? >> well, you didn't see what i said before that. what i said before that is in the middle east you have people chopping other other people's heads. this hasn't happened since medieval times. there's never been anything like this. >> and i said, by the way, waterboarding is peanuts compared to what we're talking about happening there. so i said i would absolutely approve waterboarding and i would go a lot further. >> what does that mean? >> i'm not going to define it to you on this program, but i would be very much in favor of going beyond waterboarding. believe me, in terms of getting information, it works. >> don't you worry though, look, we're the united states, we set an example. we're supposed to be better than that. as much as we're looking at the medieval -- >> sure. >> we don't do those things. >> medieval times. >> they wantnto be barbaric, we're not. >> they can do it, but we can't. when they flew

we did use waterboarding but at the end of the day it was one or the other technique. now having said that, there was a difference in before and after the enhanced interrogation technique. this was totally defy and andy didn't turn into a boy scout or democratic petri but he was more cooperative over here and in fact he gave large volumes of information including information that helped us. now can i do this and that, it doesn't work that way but let me give you a way that i explain it again in the buck and from the bottom of my heart. i cannot imagine any operation like would have been taking place that did not rely on that shoppers warehouse of information we got from those 100 plus detainees. it was like he encyclopedia al qaeda is. >> host: and now with the ease of once you find them which you point out is very hard to find them to be able to tell fill them with hellfire from a drone among the border, that is a something that is still doable technologically for us now in ways that it hasn't really ever been before and as a result, we have killed a lot of people tha

here it is. >> i would bring back waterboarding and i'd back a hell of a lot worse than waterboardingrst? >> you didn't see what i said before that. what i said before that was, in the middle east, you have people chopping off other people's heads. those hasn't happened since medieval times. . never been anything like this. i talked -- >> interesting. >> waterboarding is peanuts compared to what we're talking about happening here. so i said, i would absolutely approve waterboarding and i'd go further than waterboarding. >> what is a lot further. >> i'm not going to define it to you on this program but i would be very much in favor of going beyond waterboarding. believe me in terms of getting information, it works. >> don't you worry, though, that look we're the united states, we set an example, we're supposed to be better than that, we're supposed to be as much as -- look, we're looking at medieval. we don't do those things. >> medieval times. >> it they want to be barbaric, we're not barbaric. >> when they flew planes into the world trade center and kill millions, and paris, here, an