Article

2008-05-01 Fifth Column

AI puts out graphic ad against waterboarding

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Posted by gorb 2008-05-01 12:36|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 So where are the Amnesty Internationalists volunteering to get their heads cut off? I'd actually pay to watch that ad.

Posted by ed 2008-05-01 17:46|| 2008-05-01 17:46|| Front Page Top

#2 Great. Now I'm thirsty.

Posted by tu3031 2008-05-01 18:18|| 2008-05-01 18:18|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm right there with you, gorb. This entire waterboarding=torture "debate" is pure nonsene.

Posted by eltoroverde 2008-05-01 22:28|| 2008-05-01 22:28|| Front Page Top

#4 In the words of Michael Levin, the gentleman at the end of the video (of course it's at the end, this is CNN after all):

"There has to be firm rules, it has to be to protect the innocent. It has to be non-punitive, it's got to be done preventively. And I don't see how you can honestly say that there are certain techniques you just can't use to save thousands of innocent lives. It seems absurd."

We're talking about the potential lives of thousands of innocent civilians, even tens of thousands, being at stake. In other words, get real people. This isn't some make-believe, hollywood summer blockbuster where it all happens on a big white screen and when the credits roll you get to laugh about the ridiculous dialogue but, wow, those special effects were insane, and that one scene where the guy jumps off the building right before the bomb goes off and...

No. That's most definitely not what we're talking about here.

Posted by eltoroverde 2008-05-01 22:48|| 2008-05-01 22:48|| Front Page Top

#5 From what I understand, US Military personnel who go through SERE school (Survival, evasion, resistance and escape) are or at least were subjected waterboarding or something similar.
A few years ago, I saw a show on TV that showed volunteers who took part in a training exercise. They were each given a piece of "information" on some kind of simulated plot. The interrogators job was to put the details of the plot together. Since the subjects were volunteers, they knew or should have known that the interrogators could not really hurt or kill them. It turned out that one of the most effective techniques was for the interrogator to pretend to be their friend.
As long as terrorists know that we can't hurt or kill them, they can resist a lot. Having Congress take that sort of thing off the table means that the terrorists can be trained to withstand more than they would normally. If they believed, based on rumor, or actual cases, that we might do anything to them, they might be a little more willing to talk. For example, seeing their buddy shot in front of their eyes would probably loosen their tongues a bit when the gun is pointed at them. Knowing that the worst we can do to them is to ask them sternly means that we are less likely to talk.
I am not suggesting torture for the sake of torture. The kind of torture that John McCain and many other POWs went through in North VietNam may have broken down some men eventually. There are better ways.
Also, as I have said several times before, these people that we capture are NOT POWs under the Geneva Conventions. They are illegal combatants, and can be summarily executed. Anything we do to them where they continue to breathe is a kindness to them and should be done only at our convenience.

Posted by Rambler in California">Rambler in California 2008-05-01 22:54|| 2008-05-01 22:54|| Front Page Top

#6 Oh, I thought at first this was "Al", as in Gore.

What bizarre theory was he going to submit as to how waterboarding causes global warming?

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-05-01 23:06|| 2008-05-01 23:06|| Front Page Top

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