Waterboarding is torture says McCain

[Ragman]

..
McCain chides Republican candidates on 'torture' - Yahoo! News





McCain chides Republican candidates on 'torture'
AFP –Nov 14, 2011...


Senior US Senator John McCain on Monday rebuked Republican presidential candidates who came out in favor of a harsh interrogation tactic known as waterboarding, bluntly calling it "torture."

"Very disappointed by statements at SC (South Carolina) GOP (Republican) debate supporting waterboarding. Waterboarding is torture," McCain said on his official Twitter feed.

Several of the party's White House hopefuls said Saturday at a debate on foreign policy that they would reverse President Barack Obama's ban on techniques that meet international definitions of torture.

They notably backed "waterboarding," a kind of controlled drowning that McCain, a former prisoner of war during the Vietnam conflict, branded as torture when he was the party's presidential nominee in 2008.

"I don't see it as torture. I see it as an enhanced interrogation technique," said former pizza restaurant chain executive Herman Cain, using a term popular under Republican former president George W. Bush.

"This is war. That's what happens in war. And I am for using the techniques -- not torture, but using those techniques that we know will extract the information to save young American lives. And I will be for it until I die," said Texas Governor Rick Perry.

"I would be willing to use waterboarding," said Representative Michele Bachmann, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee. "My strategy will be that the United States will be victorious in the war on terror."

"We have to use enhanced interrogation techniques, all enhanced interrogation techniques," agreed former senator Rick Santorum.

Leading candidate Mitt Romney was not directly asked about techniques like waterboarding, and Representative Ron Paul and former US envoy to China Jon Huntsman broke sharply with their rivals by denouncing the practice as torture.

"Waterboarding is torture," said Paul. "It's illegal under international law and under our law. It's also immoral and it's also very impractical. There's no evidence that you really get reliable evidence."

"We diminish our standing in the world and the values that we project, which include liberty, democracy, human rights, and open markets, when we torture," said Huntsman.

After the debate, Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said on his official Twitter feed that "he wasn't asked but it's not torture."

Obama weighed in on Sunday, bluntly telling the Republican candidates who support waterboarding that they were "wrong" in vowing to restore the technique.

"Waterboarding is torture," the president said. "It's contrary to America's traditions. It's contrary to our ideals."
..

 

[Turtle]

Instead of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, why not call it Torture Lite?

With the right marketing, the latter would sell better. It's a third as long and twice as fulfilling.

 

[aristotle]

Label it as a Negative Sensory Experience.

 

[RLENT]

Instead of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, why not call it Torture Lite?

With the right marketing, the latter would sell better. It's a third as long and twice as fulfilling.

And less calories !

 

[LDB]

McCain is entitled to be wrong about this particular issue, and is.

 

[Ragman]

McCain is entitled to be wrong and is.

Opinions can't be wrong.

 

[RLENT]

McCain is entitled to be wrong and is.

Indeed .... just not about this particular matter ....

 

[Pilgrim]

The American voters registered their opinion of McCain's positions in 2008. He was obviously one of the worst presidential candidates ever - especially having lost to Barack Hussein Obama.

 

[cheri1122]

The American voters registered their opinion of McCain's positions in 2008. He was obviously one of the worst presidential candidates ever - especially having lost to Barack Hussein Obama.

My opinion [an an American voter] was that McCain would not be a good POTUS - but that doesn't mean I disagree with everything he said. On this subject, he's correct: torture [calling it 'enhanced interrogation' doesn't fool anyone with an IQ above room temperature] is illegal, immoral, and it doesn't "save lives". - and if any candidate would know, it would be McCain.
Funny, according to Wikipedia, a Texas Sheriff and 3 deputies were convicted of coercing confessions in 1983 by the use of a torture called waterboarding, and several Japanese were convicted of war crimes for practicing it upon American prisoners of war - but now, it's not torture?
The hypocrisy is stunning, but sadly, not unusual.

 

[RLENT]

Anybody that doesn't think it's torture, meet me over at Brisco's place and we can do a little experiment:

I'll waterboard ya ...... and if you live thru it, you can report back to everyone here about just how "un-torturous" it actually was .....

 

[RLENT]

Read the article, watch the video:

Believe Me, It’s Torture

 

[RLENT]

My opinion [an an American voter] was that McCain would not be a good POTUS - but that doesn't mean I disagree with everything he said. On this subject, he's correct: torture [calling it 'enhanced interrogation' doesn't fool anyone with an IQ above room temperature] is illegal, immoral, and it doesn't "save lives". - and if any candidate would know, it would be McCain.

Yup - I'm guessing that McCain might have a little more insight about what waterboarding is .... and isn't ..... as compared to a couple of despicable little chickenhawks that wrote the legal memo that found that it wasn't "torture" ....

Funny, according to Wikipedia, a Texas Sheriff and 3 deputies were convicted of coercing confessions in 1983 by the use of a torture called waterboarding, and several Japanese were convicted of war crimes for practicing it upon American prisoners of war - but now, it's not torture?

But we're more "sophisticated" now ..... and, of course, more civilized too ....

The hypocrisy is stunning, but sadly, not unusual.

True 'nuff .....

 

[witness23]

True dat.....

 

[Moot]

Anybody that doesn't think it's torture, meet me over at Brisco's place and we can do a little experiment:

Does this mean the Big Hurts In Hurst is back on? Cancel my refund I'm on my way. Good thing I still have my face mask and snorkel in my van from practicing the High Water Reaction Drill.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

McCain says a lot of things.

I don't know enough about torture or ill treatment in order to know what water boarding is. It does not leave a permanent scar on you. It does not inflict pain, that I know of. The UN doesn't sanction it. That, however, will undoubtedly change when the UN would benefit from its use. And I definitely believe it would be used against American citizens should the government have to put down a revolt. Local police will use it, if they have the opportunity. Otherwise, they'll use nightsticks and tazers to get what they want... as they usually do.

 

[AMonger]

McCain says a lot of things.

I don't know enough about torture or ill treatment in order to know what water boarding is. It does not leave a permanent scar on you. It does not inflict pain, that I know of. The UN doesn't sanction it. That, however, will undoubtedly change when the UN would benefit from its use. And I definitely believe it would be used against American citizens should the government have to put down a revolt. Local police will use it, if they have the opportunity. Otherwise, they'll use nightsticks and tazers to get what they want... as they usually do.

The people who've gone through it say it's torture. McCain for one, radio host Mancow for another. He volunteered to undergo controlled waterboarding and was on the radio the next day calling it torture.

Waterboarding should be treated with the Dirty Harry doctrine. Remember how he caught the perp in the stadium and performed some "enhanced interrogation" to find the location of the kidnapped girl before she died? We'd all do the same for our daughters, or sons, or wives, right? Arrest me for it, fine, just so my daughter is safe. I'll break the law to save my daughter. That's how we all feel, right? We'd all take our chances with the jury under this circumstances.

And that is why water boarding should be considered torture and illegal: to make sure it's reserved for only the gravest extreme, situations in which you'd willingly take a chance on convincing a jury that the conditions were so dire that you had no other option. And that's how it should be for troops and cops, too, who must be held to a higher standard. Bomb in Manhattan (hello, NSA monitor)? Maybe you have to water board Hakim to find out where he put it...then you can explain the extenuating circumstances to a jury of your peers and see if they agree with you.

--

You know the problem with bad cops? They make the other 5% look bad.

 

[LDB]

I can assure you my IQ is far above room temperature, double if you keep your room at 68 degrees. I can also assure you waterboarding is not torture, except in the minds of liberals and the mainstream media. It may be an extreme interrogation technique but it isn't close to torture.

 

[AMonger]

I can assure you my IQ is far above room temperature, double if you keep your room at 68 degrees. I can also assure you waterboarding is not torture, except in the minds of liberals and the mainstream media. It may be an extreme interrogation technique but it isn't close to torture.

Please tell us of the time or times that you were waterboarded.

--

You know the problem with bad cops? They make the other 5% look bad.

 

[RLENT]

I can assure you my IQ is far above room temperature, double if you keep your room at 68 degrees.

My condolences .....

I can also assure you waterboarding is not torture, except in the minds of liberals and the mainstream media.

How can you assure us ?

And why is it, that it is not torture ?

Can you actually explain this ... rather than just merely assert it ?

Were we, as a nation, wrong to convict and hang the Japanese who were convicted of war crimes for the use of this technique against our POWs ?

Does the fact that the Nazi Gestapo used this technique trouble you even remotely ?

How about the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia ?

Did you vote for Texas sheriff James Parker (sentenced to ten years in prison for waterboarding prisoners to obtain forced confessions) ?

Do you consider any of the following former senior Bush Administration officials and other individuals to be "liberal" or part of the "mainstream media": former State Department Counselor Philip Zelikow, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel Jack Goldsmith, General David Petraeus (who currently heads the CIA), General Ricardo Sanchez, (current) FBI Director Robert Mueller, and former Convening Authority for the Guantanamo military commissions Susan J. Crawford.

Does the fact that Sean Hannity declared, on April 22 2009, that he himself would undergo the procedure to prove it was not torture, and as of today we are still waiting, prove that Hannity is a complete and utter wuss ?

Would you be willing to attend (as our honored guest of course) The Great Hurst Texas Waterboarding Festival And Rental Car Road Rally™, and undergo the procedure yourself ... and then report to us your firsthand account ?

It may be an extreme interrogation technique but it isn't close to torture.

Perhaps you could flex that big 136 and provide us all with a detailed and well-reasoned explanation of what exactly constitutes torture ... and exactly how waterboarding "isn't even close" ....

 

[witness23]

I'll see your State Department Counselor Philip Zelikow , former Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, former Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel Jack Goldsmith, General David Petraeus, General Ricardo Sanchez, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Susan J. Crawford.

And raise you the resident windbag at FoxNews Sean Hannity, I'm only on T.V. because of my father, Liz Cheney, an overrated political moron who has a corporatist news network at his disposal, Karl Rove, the delusional, deceptive and war criminals, Donald Rumsfeld, G.W. Bush and I shot a man in the face Cheney, the tantalizing, empty headed Fox political analyst, Andrea Tantaras and the woman with an adam's apple who likens waterboarding to hazing, Ann Coulter.