Waterboarding is Torture, Period
If you want to know if waterboarding is a form of torture, read this post on the Small Wars Journal blog. It’s by Malcolm Nance, a former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) in San Diego, California. He is one of the few participants in the torture debate who really knows what he is talking about. Bear in mind that the SERE school trains Navy pilots to survive being tortured, which is not the same thing as torturing them.
I know the waterboard personally and intimately. SERE staff were required undergo the waterboard at its fullest. I was no exception. I have personally led, witnessed and supervised waterboarding of hundreds of people. It has been reported that both the Army and Navy SERE school’s interrogation manuals were used to form the interrogation techniques used by the US army and the CIA for its terror suspects. What was not mentioned in most articles was that SERE was designed to show how an evil totalitarian, enemy would use torture at the slightest whim. If this is the case, then waterboarding is unquestionably being used as a torture technique.
There’s a lot more. It is not fun to read, but it’s the truth. Nance points out that waterboarding does not simulate drowning– the victim is, in fact, drowning and can die.
UPDATE: Waterboarding of prisoners is illegal, too. Never mind the spin. Slicing the baloney pretty thin, winger Morton Kondracke tells Fox News that waterboarding only “feels like torture.”
UPDATE: Talking Points Memo explains that Judge Mukasey cannot follow the law because Bush administration officials live in constant fear of being prosecuted for their actions.
UPDATE: On November 2, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) came out against Musakey’s nomination for the post of Attorney General. “No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture,” said Leahy. But Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) say they’re voting for, meaning that Michael Mukasey will make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee and almost certainly be confirmed.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
There is no individual more suitable for the above described simulated exercise than our very own VP Dick Cheney. Strap the fat-bastard to the table and let the good times pour.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Waterboarding is just a Halloween costume. Now let’s see?..which of our present top level administrators likes to play ‘dress-up’?
November 1st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I a lot of fun watching Bush’s pick for AG tap dancing around and looking foolish for not being able to call waterboarding what it is at the prospect of exposing a lot of our top public officials as war criminals. I hope the democrats make him suffer a lot more over this. We would be better off not to even have an AG if Bush gets to have another shill.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
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July 24th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
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