Becuase Everything Else Sucks

Mukasey and the Waterboarding Debacle

By J. Milton
Published Saturday, November 10th, 2007, 4:57 pm
Filed under: Human Rights, Health, Terrorism, Society/Culture: Law/Order, US Politics

For the last few months I’ve heard the term waterboarding defined as a “simulation of drowning.” As I had never seen the practice carried out, I formed a particular mental image of what this “simulation” probably looked like. I can’t really describe it with words, but the image was not particularly disturbing. And I’m sure this is EXACTLY the picture that the corporate-owned media wants to paint. A simulation is benign. A simulation is harmless. A simulation is ultimately not real. Thus, a simulation surely cannot be torture.

Recently, I ran across an article by former Government Special Ops agent Malcolm Nance over at the Small Wars Journal. Coincidentally, Malcolm Nance was also interviewed for a piece that OnTheMedia ran yesterday on the media’s coverage of waterboarding. A part of the article caught my attention immediately:

“2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.”

That’s when I decided to educate myself by reading the entire article and digging into some additional resources. What I found is nothing short of horrifying. And yet, our elected officials are debating whether this practice is legal or not. Republicans (save a few ex-military who were actually tortured with waterboarding) want to claim the practice as an “interrogation technique”. Democrats want to pass a law making waterboarding illegal. The entire affair is an exercise in absurdity. A torture technique for which American enemies have been convicted of war crimes cannot suddenly be whitewashed and then practiced *by* Americans legally. Similarly, we don’t need a law banning waterboarding. It’s TORTURE and there are already laws against it! Is it possible for politicians “of good conscience” to simply stand up and vow to enforce the law? Or is that an oxymoron. Below Malcolm Nance debates the issue:

WPvideo 1.10
WPvideo 1.10

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5 Responses to “Mukasey and the Waterboarding Debacle”

  1. Good point…the dems would rather pass a law than uphold one.

    Nando
    11/10/07 at 6:54 pm

  2. It is definitely torture! If you don’t believe me, check out this video at http://current.com/items/76347282_getting_waterboarded.

    Eric
    11/10/07 at 9:20 pm

  3. It is pure torture and you are wise to point out the clear hypocrisy of how this WAS a war crime when done by others, but suddenly is not.

    I just posted part one of a series I am writing about hearing Chris Hedges speak, with more to follow.

    We are living in a fascist country run by a totalitarian dictator.

    But then again, I did not have to tell you that.

    FranIAm
    11/11/07 at 11:22 am

  4. The answer to this issue is quite simple. Mukasey cannot say ‘waterboarding’ is torture because it would immediately make criminal everyone involved all the way to the top post of the WH.

    The real terrorists are the invaders, the cretins who stole the election and placed the entire world into an Orwellian state.

    camelien
    11/12/07 at 6:59 am

  5. People always forget one important thing. Those people being tortured are only suspects, they are not guilty of any crime. There has been no judge, no jury, or any kind of evidence submitted for public review. Some sadistic coward just decides, on their own, that a person they have arrested needs to be defined as a terrorist so that they can achieve their required capture quota. Guilty, tortured and punished long before any conviction in a court and in fact after half a decade of waiting, for the majority of suspects, no conviction at all, all of them guilty until proven innocent and they denied that oppurtunity to prove themselves innocent. Through out the last century being ordered to commit a crime does not give free reign to become a criminal, the standard law for all the military rule through out the world is, ‘that it is a crime to obey an illegal order’. That in the US congress, liars, scoundrels and cowards can even attempt to say or imply the opposite with out full censure, is an insult to justice and honour. let’s see some questions on age limits, can two 200 pound brave heroes of the US Marine Core legally torture and waterboard a 80 pound naked 12 year old girl, after all she ‘might’ know where the Iraqi nuclear weapons are hidden and it’s not just that those marines are gutless sexual deviants. Where is the anger, where is the disgust, where is honour and integrity, apparently completely absent from the US congress.

    Robert
    11/12/07 at 7:55 pm

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