Somehow I don’t think this guy is giving us the whole picture on this. Does anyone honestly believe that we are torturing these guys (in the worst sense of the word) and wanting to do so without reprecussions?
“Somehow I don’t think this guy is giving us the whole picture on this.”
I am very familiar with that feeling after listening to Bush Administration talking points regarding the need for the “tools” to fight terror and the how the the language in the Geneva Convention’s Article 3 is “vague”.
Additionally, I fail to see the relevance of distinguishing between torture and torture “in the worst sense”. Is it ok to just “dabble” in torture as long as you didn’t intend to practice the really bad kind of torture?
Here is an excerpt from an ABC news story describing the torture technique that the Bush Administration has approved called waterboarding:
Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.
According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaeda’s toughest prisoner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last between two and two-and-a-half minutes before begging to confess.
“The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law,” said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch.
The techniques are controversial among experienced intelligence agency and military interrogators. Many feel that a confession obtained this way is an unreliable tool. Two experienced officers have told ABC that there is little to be gained by these techniques that could not be more effectively gained by a methodical, careful, psychologically based interrogation. According to a classified report prepared by the CIA Inspector General John Helgerwon and issued in 2004, the techniques “appeared to constitute cruel, and degrading treatment under the (Geneva) convention,” the New York Times reported on Nov. 9, 2005.
It is “bad interrogation. I mean you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture’s bad enough,” said former CIA officer Bob Baer.
Marc, Why should we NOT believe it? Tell me. Give me good hard proof it’s not the case. If you can’t, then it’s possible, right? Folks have done evil since forever and done it expecting no repercussions. Are you so on the Bush bandwagon that you think he and his administration is above reproach? Are you so proud of the military that they are too? That’s some scary thinking if it’s so.
October 2nd, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Somehow I don’t think this guy is giving us the whole picture on this. Does anyone honestly believe that we are torturing these guys (in the worst sense of the word) and wanting to do so without reprecussions?
October 2nd, 2006 at 11:13 pm
“Somehow I don’t think this guy is giving us the whole picture on this.”
I am very familiar with that feeling after listening to Bush Administration talking points regarding the need for the “tools” to fight terror and the how the the language in the Geneva Convention’s Article 3 is “vague”.
Additionally, I fail to see the relevance of distinguishing between torture and torture “in the worst sense”. Is it ok to just “dabble” in torture as long as you didn’t intend to practice the really bad kind of torture?
Here is an excerpt from an ABC news story describing the torture technique that the Bush Administration has approved called waterboarding:
Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.
According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaeda’s toughest prisoner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last between two and two-and-a-half minutes before begging to confess.
“The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law,” said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch.
The techniques are controversial among experienced intelligence agency and military interrogators. Many feel that a confession obtained this way is an unreliable tool. Two experienced officers have told ABC that there is little to be gained by these techniques that could not be more effectively gained by a methodical, careful, psychologically based interrogation. According to a classified report prepared by the CIA Inspector General John Helgerwon and issued in 2004, the techniques “appeared to constitute cruel, and degrading treatment under the (Geneva) convention,” the New York Times reported on Nov. 9, 2005.
It is “bad interrogation. I mean you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture’s bad enough,” said former CIA officer Bob Baer.
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:41 am
Marc, Why should we NOT believe it? Tell me. Give me good hard proof it’s not the case. If you can’t, then it’s possible, right? Folks have done evil since forever and done it expecting no repercussions. Are you so on the Bush bandwagon that you think he and his administration is above reproach? Are you so proud of the military that they are too? That’s some scary thinking if it’s so.