Waterboarding: A No-brainer for Mr. Cheney

By Brigitte L. Nacos 

When Republicans and Democrats adopted legislation earlier this month that was supposed to prevent the torture of terrorists or suspected terrorists, they left it to the administration to decide what constitutes illegal interrogation methods against “enemy combatants (see my post “First De-Humanization, then Rendition and Torture” of October 16, 2006). Vice-President Richard Cheney for one is not squeamish when it comes to tough interrogation methods. As Richard Eggen reports in today’s Washington Post, Cheney told a radio talk show host that “dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a ‘no-brainer’ prompting complaints from human rights advocates that he was endorsing the use of a controversial technique known as waterboarding on prisoners held by the United States.” If you want to know what waterboarding is and whether it is torture, take a look at the visuals on the No Quarter site.

Drowning simulations were reportedly first used during the Spanish Inquisition and, as Eggen writes, “In 1947, the United States prosecuted a Japanese soldier for war crimes and sentenced him to 15 years hard labor for using the technique on a U.S. prisoner.” Then the U.S. considered waterboarding torture. Now, it is merely a "tough interrogation" method.

Quite a double standard.

Comments

[kandiaheart]

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