Ravi
Diamond Member
What if there's nothing to be gotten.My position on waterboarding is that it should be used as a last resort after all other means of interrogation have failed or reached an impasse. I do not support getting to a "dead end" with a prisoner.
I understand that it is difficult to discern truth from fiction when answers are being provided in this manner, but it is not impossible for trained interrogators to do this task. If the choice is nothing, or sift through the scraps, well nobody ever promised you a rose garden. Start sifting.
As between some short period (no matter how repeated) of discomfort and the loss of one life, it's no contest. Get that nose prepared to receive some water.
One final point, if ole Khelid went through this 183 times, it can't be too fucking terrifying. Otherwise, he would have started blabbing his fool head off long before they ever got to 50.
Not really. Remember........they have a completely different culture than ours, and believe it is "manly" to stand up to the Westerners.
By the way.........saw a news article a couple of years back..........It seems that there was a Marine running around, handing out dinar and shekels to all the townspeople. He also took candy for the kids, as well as got the rest of his unit to do the same. They also bought locally.
Know what he called the money? "Paper bullets", meaning that you can get more (and better) information with a little compassion, rather than the shit that Bush Jr. and Cheney threw out.
By the way, personally, I'd like to see those two, RumsFAILED and a couple others thrown into Spandau. We could try them at the Hague.
Oh yeah..........as far as what to do with the terrorists? Well........there's a lot of room there, so they could go as well. Lock Cheney and Bush up with the terrorists. Why? Simple........the atrocities that have been done by 44's admin, as well as what the Taliban have done, well...........that qualifies them for crimes against humanity, and they've affected the whole world.
After all.......it's what they did to the Nazis.
And......just a couple of weeks ago, when the shit hit the fan on this issue, I heard SEVERAL Generals (most were 2-3 star), who stated that you can get more out of someone with a smoke and some chow, as well as a medic, than you can get from any amount of waterboarding.
Oh yeah.........it will be a hell of a lot more accurate as well. Take care of someone's needs (medical, chow), provide them with a place to feel safe, and then ask what is going on and offer to help them.
Most people will take that deal.
Besides........Pol Pot invented waterboarding as a way to get false confessions in North Korea.
How is it possible that it's accurate again? Much easier to leave the gate open and shoot 'em as they try to escape.
Of course none of that responds to what I said in my post. I said waterboarding should be used as a last resort after all other methods have failed. If you can develop repore or bribe them or take away annoyances and get them to talk, fine. This isn't about retribution, it's about intel. But, if you've pulled everything out of your bag o'tricks and you still can't get the info....it's time to bring out the big guns.
Pol Pot didn't invent waterboarding. He may have used it, but it's older than him. Also, be careful when you start throwing the label, "waterboarding" on things that were done other places. Especially in the Orient. They used several different things that have been referred to as waterboarding but have almost nothing to do with what we were doing to HVTs.
One was the Japanese would shove a hose down someones throat and fill their belly with water. Then they would place a board across the engorged belly and two Japanese would use it as a see-saw. The person was questioned until they died, usually of a ruptured stomach. Now that's torture.