A
description of the CIA's waterboarding techniques and the practical applications of other physical interrogation practices to enhance its effectiveness.
posted by artof.mulata
on Nov 9, 2010 -
30 comments
In a new article in
the Washington Post: "The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects". These documents were requested by then CIA director George Tenet, who told 60 Minutes last year (in conjuction with the publication of his book,
In the Center of the Storm), ""The image that's been portrayed is, we sat around the campfire and said, 'Oh, boy, now we go get to torture people.' Well, we don't torture people. Let me say that again to you.
We don't torture people. Okay?"
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing
on Oct 15, 2008 -
44 comments
You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning—or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure.
Christopher Hitchens, Iraq War supporter, militant atheist, and now
volunteer subject of waterboarding. With
video.
posted by orthogonality
on Jul 2, 2008 -
133 comments
Amnesty International recently staged a
real waterboarding session to reinforce its campaign to get this type of torture stopped.
Amnesty claims its commercial is the "video the CIA doesn’t want you to see”.
Starting this month the
commercial will show in Britain in movie theaters during the previews. Possibly NSFW.
posted by misanthropicsarah
on May 1, 2008 -
82 comments
During the Philippine-American War at the turn of the 20th century, American soldiers used a torture method called "
the water cure" to extract information from Filipino fighters.
[via brijit]
posted by AceRock
on Feb 21, 2008 -
26 comments
Five myths about torture In a Washington Post column,
Darius Rejali, author of Torture and Democracy, explains why five beliefs about torture are wrong. In
a Harper's interview, he answers six questions. "Yes, torture does migrate, and there are some good examples of it both in American and French history. The basic idea here is that soldiers who get ahead torturing come back and take jobs as policemen, and private security, and they get ahead doing the same things they did in the army. And so torture comes home. Everyone knows waterboarding, but no one remembers that it was American soldiers coming back from the Philippines that introduced it to police in the early twentieth century."
[more inside]
posted by Kirth Gerson
on Feb 20, 2008 -
54 comments
"This year, in a gesture of humanitarian relief, the (Lake Superior State University Banished Words) committee restores "truthiness," banned on last year's list, to formal use. This comes after comedians and late-night hosts were thrown under the bus and rendered speechless by a nationwide professional writers' strike. The silence is deafening."Of course, "
(thrown) under the bus"* is on this year's Banished List, along with "
perfect storm", "
webinar"*, "
waterboarding", "
post-9/11", "
wordsmith", "
back in the day", "
surge", "
x is the new y", "
give back" and other seemingly "
random" words and phrases.
*One of the requirements for a Banished Word or Phrase is that it has been used as a title for a Blogspot or Typepad blog. [more inside]
posted by wendell
on Jan 1, 2008 -
102 comments
John Ashcroft
stands up to prove waterboarding isn't torture, by offering to lie down for his own waterboarding. Well, that is, he offers he'd do it if it were necessary,
and if he could survive the torture. Is that a brave offer,
an admission that US has resulted in deaths, or both?
Daniel Levin, one of Ashcroft's subordinates at the Department of Justice, went further, actually undergoing waterboarding himself.
He survived it -- but his career didn't, after he he concluded torture was "abhorrent". [more inside]
posted by orthogonality
on Nov 28, 2007 -
43 comments
This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like -- David Corn, co-author with Michael Isikoff of
HUBRIS: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War, writes about what
waterboarding is and what the torturer's tools look like. Back in the day, the Khmer Rouge, among other repressive regimes, used it. Interestingly, waterboarding typically isn't employed to gain useful information. No, this near-drowning technique is most useful for eliciting "confessions". Good times, good times.
(
via reddit via Diggdot.us)
posted by mooncrow
on Sep 29, 2006 -
167 comments
