I thought the thread was on a discussion of waterboarding, but I see you are trolling for an opportunity slip in a childish SamFisher insult to "destroy a posters credibility".
No, I'm laughing at you and the fact that you attempted to discredit the CIA and the Bush Administration Justice department as "biased", uncredible sources. Don't type anything silly, and I won't laugh. I promise.
For those of you scoring at home here is basso's take on waterboarding from 2007 to the present: 1. Waterboarding never occurred or only occurred once - plus it's a cakewalk and not really torture. 2. Waterboarding never occurred and it's physically impossible to have occurred 183 times to anybody. Something about basso being morally superior to Christopher Hitchens. The memo is false 3. Waterboarding occurred, but everything in this memo is true, including the passage in the memo that I pretend like waterboarding in 2003 saved LA from a plot that was broken up in 2002. Plus Waterboarding is part of islam and helps them get to heaven, so it's not sadistic at all. The memo is true. 4. Waterboarding only occurred to this guy 5 times because it was just a whole bunch of excruciatingly long torture sessions strung together! The memo is false. Can anybody resolve these mutually exclusive positions? I tried, and failed, so I'm going to go try to prove Fermat's last theorem instead.
These semantic contortions of the torture defenders remind me of the old saying, "If you find yourself in a whole, stop digging."
one really shouldn't discuss semantics without first having a proper understanding of grammar and spelling.
"Water torture" was one of many methods of torture that was used by the five Japanese men that we executed. Furthermore, the methods of "water torture" described in the case files are not the same thing as waterboarding. Torture File
In addition to cig burns severe beatings and punching the victim in the gut after forcing water into their lungs and filling their stomach to capacity.
That link doesn't work on my computer. Also one of the victims describes waterboarding pretty much exactly. The JApanese appeared hear to be sentenced in part for exactly what we now call waterboarding. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201170_2.html There were other water tortures mentioned in the article that aren't exactly the same. Without being able to read the link I'm sure exactly what's being talked about. The fact the JApanese also did other tortures doesn't change the fact that waterboarding was considered torture and prosecuted as such.
have you watched any videos on water boarding? it only takes about 10-15 seconds to acheive the desired effect, so 20-40 seconds is a full torture session.
If you can find japanese prosecuted for war crimes that only did the modern waterboarding please present it. all the ones I can find were shown to do very hash torture including the stuff I listed earlier.
probably not harsh jut useful for getting info. when they wanted to just punish they would just beat the crap out of POW's or sharpen their bayonets with their guts.
Again, that doesn't change the fact that the U.S. prosecuted for waterboarding. Whether they also did worse things or not, doesn't change that.
Yes it does. If a cop is charged with police brutality and they tazed a guy but also broke his ribs from repeated beatings, it does not mean that the tazing was the cuse of the prosecution.
True, but in the case of the Japanese the testimony specifically describes waterboarding as part of the torture, and from the testimony, the victims didn't trivialize or minimize the impact that waterboarding had. Since that was part of what was considered torture, that is part of what the Japanese were prosecuted and convicted of. The article was written by a JAG, with plenty of knowledge on the subject.
