Why on earth would anyone respond to any U.S. government (specifically the Bush administration) appeal to respect human rights? Here (pdf) was US Attorney General Michael Mikasey in a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy on January 29, 2008:
During the course of my review I have been briefed on the CIA interrogation program. A limited set of methods is currently authorized for use in that program. I have been authorized to disclose publicly that waterboarding is not among those methods.
Notice the "currently." Today it is revealed (yeah like we didn't know already):
The CIA has for the first time publicly admitted using the controversial method of "waterboarding" on terror suspects.
CIA director Michael Hayden told Congress however that it had only been used on three people, and not at all for the past five years.
You hate to be a cynic but given that they had never admitted it before and that Mukasey had just gone on the record saying it wasn't a current technique (don't want to make him look bad) I'm kinda doubting that the practice has stopped. Of course, this isn't much of a defense anyways. Your honor, I don't kill anymore. I gave it up years ago. And then there is this.
Waterboarding is an interrogation technique in which the detainee is put in fear of drowning.
Some critics describe it as torture and Congress has been debating banning its use by the CIA.
President Bush has threatened to veto such a bill.
Of course the war criminal Bush has threated to veto the bill. That is what war criminals do. But notice the statement above. Very slowly now. It - is - fucking - torture! Smashing someone in the legs with an aluminum baseball bat can destroy their knees. Some critics say this hurts.
So let's be clear. If you support the use of waterboarding you support torture (and, frankly, you are a real S.O.B.)
Go here if you care to see what waterboarding is really like. Here's a taste:
...So, is it torture?
I'll put it this way. If I had the choice of being waterboarded by a third party or having my fingers smashed one at a time by a sledgehammer, I'd take the fingers, no question.
It's horrible, terrible, inhuman torture. I can hardly imagine worse. I'd prefer permanent damage and disability to experiencing it again. I'd give up anything, say anything, do anything.
It is truly remarkable and disgusting that this is even being debated. My god.
Oh and one more thing. As I've said Bush is clearly a war criminal and if there is a god he will be tried as such. Once more that old pic from Billmon that we all dream about.
Update: And you know just for the record, these observations in no way imply some support for terrorists of any stripe. Nations which strive to be democratic and just need to be working to eliminate inhumane tactics such as torture - not utilizing them for gods sake. It's sad that nowadays that you have to point out something that should be so obvious.
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