Waterboarding: Interrogation Or Torture?

Technique Dates Back To Spanish Inquisition And Has Been Used By World's Cruelest Regimes

(CBS)  Waterboarding, a controversial interrogation technique that simulates drowning, dates back to at least the Spanish Inquisition, and has been used some of the world's cruelest dictatorships, according to Human Rights Watch.

Forms of waterboarding vary but generally consist of immobilizing an individual on his or her back - head inclined downward - and pouring water over the face to induce the sensation of drowning.

Other techniques include dunking prisoners head-first into water, as was used by Chadian military forces in the mid 1980s. The Khmer Rouge, responsible for the deaths of approximately 1.5 million Cambodians during the 1970s, strapped victims on inclined boards, with feet raised and head lowered, and covered their faces with cloth or cellophane. Water then was poured over their mouths to stimulate drowning.

Waterboarding, long considered a form of torture by the United States, produces a gag reflex and makes the victim believe death is imminent. The technique leaves no visible physical damage.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, considers waterboarding a form of torture. McCain has been quoted as saying that waterboarding is "no different than holding a pistol to his head and firing a blank."

After World War II, U.S. military commissions prosecuted several Japanese soldiers for subjecting U.S. soldiers to waterboarding, according to Human Rights Watch. In 1968, a U.S. soldier was court-martialed for water boarding a Vietnamese prisoner.

But in October 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney confirmed the United States had used the controversial technique to interrogate senior Al Qaeda suspects, and he said the White House did not consider waterboarding a form of torture.

In the aftermath of September 11, fewer than 100 terrorists have been held in the CIA's secret prisons, and fewer than one third of those have been subjected to what CIA Director Michael Hayden calls "special methods of interrogation," and what others called torture.

"The intelligence they produce is absolutely irreplaceable," Hayden said. "It's been crucial in giving us a better understanding of the enemy we face as well as leads on taking in taking other terrorists off the battlefield."

The CIA says it no longer uses waterboarding.

Cheney confirmed waterboarding was used to interrogate Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the senior Al Qaeda operative now being held in Guantanamo Bay, adding that the use of the technique was "a no-brainer."

"The Bush administration continues to astonish," said Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA's executive director. "Its own State Department has labeled water boarding torture when it applies to other countries. Yet in President Bush's legal wonderland, water boarding is renamed an enhanced interrogation technique. President Bush continues to assert that his administration is complying with U.S. and international law, yet every available fact has proven the contrary."

[Bullshita]

you know it's called war for a reason if you can get answers from a terrorist about something thats going to help you break a stronghold or gain knowledge of their organization then by all means do it it's not anything worse that they are doing to are soldiers when they are captured, quit worrying about what others think of us even if some of them are in this country and start worrying about the welfare of our safety and future!

[prinzowhales]

The CBS question, "Interrogation or Torture" offers up a false choice...the torture is used in the interrogations. At Abu Ghraib, it looked as if they were using the torture as an instrument for developing and controlling informants.

[speakinup]

princess - so what ever happened to the 250 taliban surrounded article, huh ? CBS did REAL justice to that story didn''t they.

Guess enough kids weren''t killed to make it newsworthy. Or, was it just because things were looking good ?

[prinzowhales]

Speakingup...but never with anything to say-- Not going to venture an opinion on the Neo-Con question today with your pal, ''SendReidPelo''?

[speakinup]

Prinzowhales - you ARE most ignorant, narcissistic thing I have ever come across on these boards...

[prinzowhales]

SendReidPelo--You are just about the most ignorant little man I have ever come across on these boards...

Did you know that the intellectual fathers of the Neo-Cons sat at the feet of Leo Strauss, a German Jew recommended by the Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt to the Rockefellars? Think about that for a moment, research it and think about it again and see if anything approaching a genuine thought comes through that pea-sized brain bouncing around in an otherwise empty head.

[wilc4u]

Now that The way in which To water board has been so reveiled by the news media, kids of all ages will be trying to do it,But again the Bush admin bears the blame as well.

[sendreidpelo]

"sounds like the neocon agenda to me" -

Moron.

Revealing your true colors, "illogical Canada"? You are probably a supporter of Hamas and a hater of Jews and Israel as well as our military.

The word Neo-Con is usually an epithet of anti-Semitism dredged up by the Nazis of the Left, particularly those from the new American Hitlerjugend, MoveOn.Org, or the Daily Kos.

Or the same toilet bowl scum who pillored a real LIBERAL, Joe Lieberman, as "Jew" Lieberman, for having the courage to call the war on Terrorism as what it really was - a war against an enemy as evil as Hitler.

But considering that these brain dead bozos who spew "Neo-Con" usually have a kind word for their beloved Adolf, this doesn''t surprise me at all.

[sendreidpelo]

Capt,

Good - and straight to the point post.

A moron like logicanada - note where this bozo is from - would never get it in a million years. He''s too brain dead to think.

Still, execution of spies or saboteurs by military firing squads was considered an honorable death - for those of the Left Fascist mentality who screech "Sieg Heil" Bush - and are the very embodiment of the Nazis they claim to despise, swinging from a gibbet would be much appropo.

After all, they''re cowards and traitors who''d favor a victory by a babykiller like Bin Laden over our troops in Iraq.

Yes, swinging from a gibbet.

[sendreidpelo]

Cigalechanta and his fellow cowardly Left Fascists are the ones who deserve to be waterboarded - or at least spend some time with their roach friends in a cell at Gitmo.

After all, they constantly cry about how Bush is taking away their freedoms - BS - and they constantly screech about how ILLEGAL the war in Iraq is (as if the invasion of Kosovo and the 30-days non-stop bombing of Serb civilians in Belgrade by the Impeached Pervert wasn''t)

Maybe Cigalechanta - probably an ILLEGAL alien wants some first hand experience in waterboarding. Actually one of his own Lefty Icons has plenty of experience. The senior Senator of Massachusetts, Edward Ted Kennedy, who did a bit himself one night under the Chappaquidick River Bridge.

Just ask Mary Jo Kopechne. Oh, but you can''t.

[cigalechanta]

Let''s have Bush, Cheney and the rest who think lightly of water boarding, have a BIG taste of it, and while we are at it how about their able young shipped off to Iraq.

[cigalechanta]

I say lets have Bush, Cheney and te rest who think it''s not torture try waterboarding on them.
While we are at it. lets have their young ones go to Iraq.

[logicanada]

zootallures2-The Titanic sunk because it''s captain was over eager to impress. When the man at the wheel says to go full steam ahead in a sea full of icebergsand when his misjudgements cause innocent people to die, you know he''s not thinking straight. Sounds just like the neocon machine to me.

[logicanada]

capt777737. . .go back to your trailer, turn on FOX, open a Bud, load your rifle and clean it.

[siete-pesos]

mc cain is no hero...

mc cain never faced an enemy combatant in his career.

mc cain dropped bombs on women and children in vietnam

while flying 30,000 ft. in the air.

mc cain...just another flim flam republican creep.

[prinzowhales]

mark19562-- One of the objections to torture is that it is "VERY unpleasant"...in fact, that just about sums up my objections to torture. The link below goes to a blog that notes that in 1948 a US tribunal thought it was torture as well.

I don''t know how many video games you have to play to come to the conclusion that people picked up in random sweeps, innocent sheep herders turned in for enormous sums of money for having alleged terrorist links, and others are not "human" and then justify their torture by some maniacal calculation that torturing them is saving lives...Perhaps you can show us a case where this has saved some lives?

I don''t know if the below link will help...the Article is from "No Right Turn" of October 8, 2007...

http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2007/10/acting-like-nazis.html?widgetType=BlogArchive&widgetId=BlogArchive1&action=toggle&dir=open&toggle=MONTHLY-1122811200000&toggleopen=MONTHLY-1191150000000

[zootallures2]

Water boarding is not torture, much like the pulling of fingernails is simply a means of low maintainance nail care.

Posted by logicanada at 05:24 PM : Nov 02, 2007

And just because the deck was higher up, it didn''t help the Titanic for very long.

[logicanada]

Water boarding is not torture, much like the pulling of fingernails is simply a means of low maintainance nail care.

[ixoye_02]

What idiot would believe that torturing someone for information would necessarily result in reliable information? This administration seems desperate to justify torture because it is saving American lives. Why not save American lives by providing adequate Homeland security, healthcare, and clean water and food? Those who believe that we can justify anything if it saves American lives need to reexamine just what saving American lives mean. And when we can''t draw the line against immoral and unlawful activity, then we are compromising our principles. Bush is playing a dangerous game of playing semantics on what should be a clear-cut position. How can we claim the moral high ground if we are splitting hairs about waterboarding? Bush is more interested in technicalities than principle. God help our troops should they be captured and "interrogated" like we have done with the suspected terrorists. What''s more, how do we explain what happened to those whose rendition to foreign countries for "interrogation"? We found out that these people were tortured at the hands of foreigners under US direction.

[mark19562-2009]

As to why Bush hasn''t disclosed specifics of intel that has come about as a result, that is so stupid as to not even deserve a response! Almost as the for people lying through it (torture). I have to say a few words on this though. Maybe occasionally one will lie. Then go back and try some different "techniques" which make water boarding seem like patty-cake and they''ll tell the truth!

You un-American *** live in the greatest country on earth--no, it''s not pefect--and you decry the people and institutions that have made it great and make it great today, and give you the freedom that you enjoy. You are blood-sucking leaches--parasites that will eventually kill their host if given the chance, but you''re too stupid to know it!

Also, I agree that MOST of you love shedding innocent blood when it comes to abortion, but when it comes to protecting ourselves against our sworn enemies, you cower like little whipped puppies! You make me sick!