Gina Haspel, C.I.A. Deputy Director, Had Leading Role in Torture

What torturing. Barking dogs ??

Jon Stewart the historian ?? That’s the same guy who complained that he can’t do comedy anymore because of PC.

 

No, not JS the historian, JS the social commentator. The guy who watches the evening propaganda delivery regarding "current events" and then offers relevant (and funny) commentary.

OPEN UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT was to relevant at the time.

Because you did not see it you have a hard time understanding.

 

Yet the US prosecuted and executed the Japanese for war crimes that included waterboarding.

http://www.politifact.com/virginia/...scott-after-wwii-us-executed-japanese-war-cr/

 

WOW!

 

Yup, they were both wrong, see how that works?

 

Execution, be it by guillotine, electrification or injection, is more human than torture.

Torture isn't interrogation - it's punishment. It has next to no value as an intelligence-gathering technique. That's why it's barbaric and a reason civilised, occidental countries - with the notable exception of the US - rejected it.

 

The US government is prohibited from using torture under the Bill of Rights (5th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 14th Amendment). It was always illegal in the US from inception. Furthermore, the US is a signatory to several international treaties that prohibit torture. All international treaties that the US is a signatory to are part of the Constitution under the Supremacy Clause (Article VI Section 2). There is no US exception. The Bush administration attempted to get around the Constitution via the chicanery of John Yoo. This was not only illegal but a crime against the Constitution.

 

Poor Gina had no other choice.

Gina Haspel Recalls Having To Torture More Prisoners Than Male Colleagues To Prove Herself

https://politics.theonion.com/gina-haspel-recalls-having-to-torture-more-prisoners-th-1823740451

 

The Japanese waterboarded prisoners until they passed out. The Americans limited it to 20-40 seconds and then stopped so the prisoner could catch his breath.

 

That would be applicable to US citizens. Not enemy combatants captured in foreign nations.

 

How do you know, were you there?

 

It is a culture of death requiring human sacrifice.

 

That's incorrect, it's applicable universally, there is NO exception.

 

We broke international law, you know, we use that all the time as a pretense to invade others. It just doesn't apply to us on accounta we're "exceptional" and ****.

 

I would have given you a "like" if you used the proper pronoun. We collectively are not war criminals (at least most of us aren't), the US government is responsible for committing war crimes, not "we".

 

I had actually known that the US were not supposed to be involved in torture. It is just easy to forget when it is made a 'norm' again. It is torture. It interferes with people's ability to think and produces false memories as well as terrifying them and making them gasp for air. It is an ineffective way of getting information when you have available much more effective ways.

A few weeks ago I had a gastric scope without sedation. They put a camera down your throat. I thought I was going to die. Now no one has suggested that is torture so I hate to think what people go through in waterboarding.

 

Nope, but have read reports on the Japanese use of the method and victims testimony that it wasn't painful.

 

Bizarre that you argue that murder is more humane than water boarding.

 

Im not arguing as to its effectiveness. I am arguing that it simply does not meet the definition below-

"For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession,"


" (1) (a) That with reference to article 1, the United States understands that, in order to constitute torture, an act must be specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering and that mental pain or suffering refers to prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from (1) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; (2) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality; (3) the threat of imminent death; or (4) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality."

Especially since the CIA would do it for 20-40 seconds and then stop so they could catch their breath. In contrast to the Japanese who would do it until the prisoner passed out, then revive him so they could start again. Along with punching, kicking, burning with cigarettes, etc, yeah, you could argue that waterboarding done that way is torture.

And putting a gun to a guys face is a "threat of imminent death". Putting a another bottle of water to his face is not.

 

The link I provided indicates from testimony from someone who was water boarded that their is no pain.

 

JS is an extremely biased comedian. JS delivered daily propaganda. He fed into the paranoia of his audience and made a lot of money doing so.

 

I provided a link from someone who said the opposite. I Provided links from experts who said the opposite.

As has been well illustrated in this thread, the only reason for torture is a desire to punish. It is not to get information as it is very poor at that, With waterboarding this is particularly true as it interferes with memory even creating false memories and this can continue for life.

Clearly it is a desire to get off on someone thinking they are dying. To enjoy the power the torturer has over him and to try to destroy his spirit regardless of the reality that the person who is being tortured may never have done anything wrong. Gives them a real good idea of what American's are like eh?

In order to get information other methods are far more effective and given that, there really should be no discussion of using torture on anyone.

 

Well, of the punishments inflicted upon captured combatants in wars around the world, pouring water on their face is pretty mild. Death after torture is frequently the punishment of choice in the Muslim world. And not the pouring water on their face type of torture.

 

Someone who had never been waterboarded.

 

No, that was the requirement mandated by the medical advisors and signed off on by the Bush administration. Same with the requirement of sterile saline solution, the presence of a Dr, etc.