Comments on Torture or agressive bath?

Didn't Fox have some correspondents abducted recently? Maybe those hostages should've asked for some waterboarding treatment from some REAL terrorists. Or better yet, have a "Waterboarding of the Network News Stars" show, and have the anchors waterboard each other. Jackasses.

This video on YouTube is a much more realistic view of waterboarding.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4Fk1uE1SPOo

The Fox News vid is a joke.

In the FOX simulation, they covered the guy's mouth with plastic wrap and dripped water in his nose with a turkey baster. Seriously.

I heard a description of waterboarding on the radio a few weeks ago (on BBC World, I think). It went something like this: "They held me under water as I struggled and panicked, eventually giving up and breathing in the water. The next thing I remember, I was out of the water and being resuscitated, only to be pushed back under water."

In case anyone else heard it and knows where I can find it, I would love to get a copy of that report to play for people who still think this is all "pranks nad hazing".

There's a certain sense of comfort involved when you know that not only are you not going to die, they're not going to seriously hurt you, and you can stop and/or go home whenever you'd like.

that fox video is bullshit on so many levels. first, anyone will tell you that interrogations involve multiple layers, and you'd probably never use water boarding in isolation. it would come after/with other tactics used to scare the hell out of someone and make them think their life is endanger. plus they would have been sleep-deprived and probably food-deprived, decreasing their chance to process things. when you look at the laws of war, and laws against torture, the standard is to look at thinks in the totality, rather than each practice as a vacuum. not that water boarding alone is ok.

plus, beyond whether it's torture (or cruel, inhuman or degrading, which our laws also prohibit), there's plenty to suggest that any info you get from torture may be unreliable (probably has something to do with this week's news report about decreased prosecution of terrorist suspects).

one of the other major networks should do a counterpoint, talking to real victims and showing up fox for the propaganda station it really is.

The sickest thing is that we’ve known for decades that torture doesn’t work. Everyone confesses under torture. It’s also one of the many reasons that people don’t trust the US government to prosecute terror suspects even when it appears that they confessed. Of course they confessed --the CIA tortured them.

This is such bullshit.

(1) The simulation is crap. Totally controlled. The reporter knew at all times that he wasn't really going to be hurt, and knew it was just a demo. He knew he could "tap out" any time it got too bad for him. Knowing this, there is no way that he ever felt like he was in any true danger of drowning.

(2) Even under these fake, controlled conditions, he still said "I would tell them anything within minutes" (emphasis mine). Like say, that he was a pole smoking meth freak? That he buries the bodies of dead babies in his yard? That he's Osama's brother? It is possible that you might conceivably make some argument in favor of torture, if it actually worked. But since a torture victim will basically say anything, true or not, just to make it stop, then any information you get is nearly useless.

(3) Our own government prosecuted Japanese commanders for war crimes after WW II for waterboarding American soldiers. Why is it a war crime when the Japanese do it, but it's okay when we do it?

(4) If it is okay for us to waterboard terror suspects (which is anyone that Bush says is a terror suspect), then it is implicit that it is okay if foreign powers waterboard captured American soldiers. Way to support our troops, ass holes.

Khalid Sheikh Muhammad sang like a soprano, Andrew, & gave up the Rolodex. It's a fnarftard canard that 'everybody knows' nobody ever gets good stuff from aggressive bathing.

(& forget Fox or Red Hot chili Peppers. If boarding is torture, tell it to the grunts who get in boot camp. Hell, tell it Jesus Camp.)