Legal Precedents Regarding Waterboarding

catzmeow

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During the Spanish-American War, a U.S. soldier, Major Edwin Glenn, was suspended from command for one month and fined $50 for using "the water cure." In his review, the Army judge advocate said the charges constituted "resort to torture with a view to extort a confession." He recommended disapproval because "the United States cannot afford to sanction the addition of torture."

In the war crimes tribunals that followed Japan's defeat in World War II, the issue of waterboarding was sometimes raised. In 1947, the U.S. charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian. Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

On Jan. 21, 1968, The Washington Post ran a front-page photo of a U.S. soldier supervising the waterboarding of a captured North Vietnamese soldier. The caption said the technique induced "a flooding sense of suffocation and drowning, meant to make him talk." The picture led to an Army investigation and, two months later, the court martial of the soldier.

Cases of waterboarding have occurred on U.S. soil, as well. In 1983, Texas Sheriff James Parker was charged, along with three of his deputies, for handcuffing prisoners to chairs, placing towels over their faces, and pouring water on the cloth until they gave what the officers considered to be confessions. The sheriff and his deputies were all convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.

Waterboarding: A Tortured History : NPR

For the record, the U.S. Department of Justice, under Ronald Reagan, prosecuted the case against Sheriff James Parker and three of his deputies, for waterboarding. In 1983, waterboarding was a FELONY OFFENSE.
 
During the Spanish-American War, a U.S. soldier, Major Edwin Glenn, was suspended from command for one month and fined $50 for using "the water cure." In his review, the Army judge advocate said the charges constituted "resort to torture with a view to extort a confession." He recommended disapproval because "the United States cannot afford to sanction the addition of torture."

In the war crimes tribunals that followed Japan's defeat in World War II, the issue of waterboarding was sometimes raised. In 1947, the U.S. charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian. Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

On Jan. 21, 1968, The Washington Post ran a front-page photo of a U.S. soldier supervising the waterboarding of a captured North Vietnamese soldier. The caption said the technique induced "a flooding sense of suffocation and drowning, meant to make him talk." The picture led to an Army investigation and, two months later, the court martial of the soldier.

Cases of waterboarding have occurred on U.S. soil, as well. In 1983, Texas Sheriff James Parker was charged, along with three of his deputies, for handcuffing prisoners to chairs, placing towels over their faces, and pouring water on the cloth until they gave what the officers considered to be confessions. The sheriff and his deputies were all convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.
Waterboarding: A Tortured History : NPR

For the record, the U.S. Department of Justice, under Ronald Reagan, prosecuted the case against Sheriff James Parker and three of his deputies, for waterboarding. In 1983, waterboarding was a FELONY OFFENSE.
Whoa...I did not know that. I have to give Ronnie points for this...I still think he's the worst president that ever came down the pike but that is excellent to know.
 
On further consideration it wasn't the waterboarding in any of those cases so much as the purpose for which the waterboarding was used. Especially so in the case of the first and the last.

And by the way, spies and saboteurs are exempt from the rules found in Geneva. The three people upon whom it was used are buy any rational definition both. Frankly in the case of those three assholes waterboarding them till they quit breathing would be little more than poetic justice for the lives they are responsible for ending.
 
The interrogators in Iraq said the main motivation of the foreign fighters to come to Iraq was the abuse of prisoners at Abu G. prison.

Our torturing of prisoners was the best recruiter AQ ever had.
 
The interrogators in Iraq said the main motivation of the foreign fighters to come to Iraq was the abuse of prisoners at Abu G. prison.

Our torturing of prisoners was the best recruiter AQ ever had.

how quaint, saddam's abuses were far greater....yet that not didn't bother them...enough to come to iraq

smells like meadowmuffins
 
I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq - washingtonpost.com

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans.
 
I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq - washingtonpost.com

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans.

I see you still like making false comparisons. The prisoners at Abu ghraib were sexually assaulted, physically assaulted....how does that compare to waterboarding? It doesn't dipshit. When a terrorists comfort takes precedence over thousands of innocent lives, then something is screwy morally in this country.
 
I see you still like making false comparisons. The prisoners at Abu ghraib were sexually assaulted, physically assaulted....how does that compare to waterboarding? It doesn't dipshit. When a terrorists comfort takes precedence over thousands of innocent lives, then something is screwy morally in this country.

And guess what? There are several military personnel sitting in military prisons for those activities, and now we learn that they were likely approved at the highest levels.

We're not talking about terrorist "comfort" here. We're talking about a violation of federal law (1984 conventions on terrorism, signed into law by Ronald Reagan). We're talking about our identity as a nation. We're talking about the irony of BECOMING barbarians in a zany quest to stop barbarism.

We are Americans. WE DO NOT FUCKING DO THIS.
 
how quaint, saddam's abuses were far greater....


We took Sadam's torture chambers, one of the reasons we invaded Iraq (to stop human rights abuses), and one of the main reasons I supported the invasion, and we started torturing Iraqis in them.

What makes us all that different from Saddam?
 
During the Spanish-American War, a U.S. soldier, Major Edwin Glenn, was suspended from command for one month and fined $50 for using "the water cure." In his review, the Army judge advocate said the charges constituted "resort to torture with a view to extort a confession." He recommended disapproval because "the United States cannot afford to sanction the addition of torture."

In the war crimes tribunals that followed Japan's defeat in World War II, the issue of waterboarding was sometimes raised. In 1947, the U.S. charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian. Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

On Jan. 21, 1968, The Washington Post ran a front-page photo of a U.S. soldier supervising the waterboarding of a captured North Vietnamese soldier. The caption said the technique induced "a flooding sense of suffocation and drowning, meant to make him talk." The picture led to an Army investigation and, two months later, the court martial of the soldier.

Cases of waterboarding have occurred on U.S. soil, as well. In 1983, Texas Sheriff James Parker was charged, along with three of his deputies, for handcuffing prisoners to chairs, placing towels over their faces, and pouring water on the cloth until they gave what the officers considered to be confessions. The sheriff and his deputies were all convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.

Waterboarding: A Tortured History : NPR

For the record, the U.S. Department of Justice, under Ronald Reagan, prosecuted the case against Sheriff James Parker and three of his deputies, for waterboarding. In 1983, waterboarding was a FELONY OFFENSE.

And then Governor Shrub refused to pardon the sheriff
 
how quaint, saddam's abuses were far greater....


We took Sadam's torture chambers, one of the reasons we invaded Iraq (to stop human rights abuses), and one of the main reasons I supported the invasion, and we started torturing Iraqis in them.

What makes us all that different from Saddam?

if you don't know, then nothing i say will convince you otherwise
 
Shepard Smith Curses On National Television*Video

Shepard Smith channels Samuel Jackson in a lively discussion on the recently released torture memos. Fox News, where debate means keeping your pimp hand strong.

I have a crush on Shepard Smith now.

That was a defining moment, wasn't it?

It reminded me of the McCarthy hearings where the witness says, "Have you no sense of decency sir? Have you, at long last, left no sense of decency?"
 
I see you still like making false comparisons. The prisoners at Abu ghraib were sexually assaulted, physically assaulted....how does that compare to waterboarding? It doesn't dipshit. When a terrorists comfort takes precedence over thousands of innocent lives, then something is screwy morally in this country.

And guess what? There are several military personnel sitting in military prisons for those activities, and now we learn that they were likely approved at the highest levels.

We're not talking about terrorist "comfort" here. We're talking about a violation of federal law (1984 conventions on terrorism, signed into law by Ronald Reagan). We're talking about our identity as a nation. We're talking about the irony of BECOMING barbarians in a zany quest to stop barbarism.

We are Americans. WE DO NOT FUCKING DO THIS.

What are you talking about? Waterboarding isn't a violation of any foreign treaty or convention that the US belongs to.
 
how quaint, saddam's abuses were far greater....


We took Sadam's torture chambers, one of the reasons we invaded Iraq (to stop human rights abuses), and one of the main reasons I supported the invasion, and we started torturing Iraqis in them.

What makes us all that different from Saddam?

Are you referring to Gitmo or what?
 

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