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Waterboarding is Torture... Period
In light of Mike Mukasey's waffling on whether waterboarding is torture, and Mort Kondracke's recent statement that the procedure is no big deal ("I'm sure it feels like torture, you know, it doesn't result in any lasting damage, but it feels like torture.") I want to point you all to a blog post over at Small Wars Journal that I found via The Plank. The title? "Waterboarding is Torture... Period." And the man making the argument is an authority.
As a former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) in San Diego, California 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...
Having been subjected to them all, I know these techniques, if in fact they are actually being used, are not dangerous when applied in training for short periods. However, when performed with even moderate intensity over an extended time on an unsuspecting prisoner – it is torture, without doubt. Couple that with waterboarding and the entire medley not only “shock the conscience” as the statute forbids -it would terrify you. Most people can not stand to watch a high intensity kinetic interrogation. One has to overcome basic human decency to endure watching or causing the effects. The brutality would force you into a personal moral dilemma between humanity and hatred. It would leave you to question the meaning of what it is to be an American....
Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.
Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.
You have to read the whole thing.
Comments
Anyone who thinks waterboarding should try it for themselves. I think it will convince anyone.
JS,
Thanks for the link to the SWJ - good stuff.
And I would liike to say THANKS for many of the pieces you have written - excellent stuff all.
K
Posted by: capt on 10/31/07 at 1:31 PM Respond
Didn't Mukasey just come right out and say that he loves waterboarding, and does it himself all the time??
http://www.humblenarrator.com/2007/10/31/mukasey-supports-waterboarding-as-100-adrenaline/
Posted by: Michael Parkatti on 10/31/07 at 2:27 PM Respond
Check out this video mocking the Bush crime family. It uses satire and sexy supermodels to expose the horror of waterboarding.
It's called Champagne Supermodel Waterboarding Queen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2zuOWBIIXQ
Posted by: Digifluff Evangalist on 08/09/08 at 11:31 AM Respond
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Posted by: Dan on 10/31/07 at 1:20 PM Respond