there are NO effective means of torture if you are trying to gather serious intelligence. again, the fact that we as a nation are even debating this is just sick.
But the thing is not only jihadi's will be subject to waterboarding. Basically anyone who doesn't kiss the administration's ass is threatened. All the administration has to do is to claim you are suspected of supporting extremists, then you are striped of any legal protection thanks to the bill congressed passed recently, and then they will coerce you into admitting anything by torturing you, and that is the end of it. Isn't that scary? Historically, torture has been used, most often than not, to coerce someone into admiting things they didn't do. That is where all this is leading to.
But that is short sighted. We hopefully have or might have agents in Iran, N. Korea, Russia, Georgia, Uzebekistan, etc. Because there are a certain group of opponents in the here and now that aren't signatories doesn't mean it will be that way forever and always.
Here is another historical example that might help. Before WWII the Japanese never signed the Geneva Conventions. As such they were under no legal obligation imposed by the conventions. But when Americans think of Japan in WWII they think of atrocities committed against American soldiers. It is getting a little hard these days, but go find an American POW who was captured by the Japanese, and tell him that he should apologize to the Japanese for hating them because they weren't legally obligated to treat him according to the Geneva Conventions and so he has no legitimate complaints. After they take the wire out of your fractured jaw, we can come back and discuss why morality and long term perception are more important in guiding our strategy than any short term gains achieved by only considering the absolute limits imposed by legal obligations.
Who the f-ck is"Dean Barnett" and how many people has that b**** tortured? Adide from his readership of course, with that dogsh-t that bassmaster was kind enough to post. Cause lots and lots of interrogation professionals will tell you that torture doesn't work, despite Dean-o's contrarian experience. However it seem slike he's another internet armchair douchebag torture meister, I mean his sources are impeccable...
