U.S. Acknowledges Use of Waterboarding
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats demanded a criminal investigation into waterboarding by government interrogators Tuesday after the Bush administration acknowledged for the first time that the tactic was used on three terror suspects.
In congressional testimony Tuesday, CIA Director Michael Hayden became the first administration official to publicly acknowledge the agency used waterboarding on detainees following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Waterboarding involves strapping a suspect down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world.
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At first the Bush administration denied it -- the U.S. does not use torture. Now it's finally out in the open -- it does.
What's sad about this is there's a segment of the population that will be all for this and won't find anything wrong with it at all. They will protest that the use of torture is a necessary tool in the War on Terror against enemies who would have no hesitations in using similar or worse methods on U.S. soldiers.
Human rights, international law, and the basic identity of the U.S. as a bastion of freedom, democracy, and rule of law be damned. Tacit approval of this, of course, is done on the assumption that it won't be them or their family member who will be on the receiving end of such treatment.
The last time I heard Bush considered himself a born-again Christian. Somehow I can't see a way to reconcile Christian ideals and values with torture and waterboarding.
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3 comments:
Myself and several fellow bloggers have bitterly decried their methods for years. I lament with great disappointment that there has not been a greater public outcry over this continuing abuse of basic human rights.
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The United States of America uses WATER BOARDING - GREAT!!!
The people SURVIVE the experience!!!
Now if only the Moral Superiority Crew can tell our enemies to STOP BEHEADING and BLOWING UP our people THEN we can work toward ZERO TOLERANCE.
Have you noticed that there are no Al Queda "Prisoner of War" Camps holding American and British fighters. Upon being found alive or wounded - THEY ARE SHOT DEAD ON THE SPOT. Their bodies are usually recovered out of the Tigris or Euphrates Rivers.
Funny how that works.
Well CF, as I said, there will be a segment of the population that will be all for torture as policy. It appears you are one of them. How does that make you feel?
You appear to support torture not because it has been demonstrated to be effective but because you want an eye for an eye.
Check out this link where the all but decided to be Republican nominee--one of your guys--says this statement:
"SEN. JOHN McCAIN: First, subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence because under torture a detainee will tell his interrogator anything to make the pain stop. Second, mistreatment of our prisoners endangers U.S. troops, who might be captured by the enemy, if not in this war then in the next."
And if you are in the opinion that waterboarding is no big deal because the person subjected to it survives, well I invite you to try it out for yourself and subject yourself to be waterboarded.
Lastly, from your conservative-sounding rantings and ravings, I hazard a guess that you consider yourslef a person who is for family values, God, Christianity, morality, and everything that is good and decent. I wonder how you reconcile those values with your gleeful support of torture as official policy.
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