"However long we are keepers of the public trust, we should never forget that we are here as public servants," Mr. Obama said. Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times
Posted on 11/14/2011 2:30:27 PM PST by Starman417
President Obama, speaking at the APEC News Conference, responded to statements made by GOP presidential candidates at Saturday's NJ debate:
KAPOLEI, Hawaii — President Barack Obama says the interrogation technique known as waterboarding constitutes torturing, disputing Republican presidential candidates who say they would reinstate the practice.Obama called waterboarding “torture” and said it was “contrary to America’s traditions” during a news conference at the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Republicans Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann said during a Republican debate on Saturday that they would reinstate the technique that former President George W. Bush authorized and Obama banned.
Waterboarding was discontinued in 2006 as a CIA EIT practice under Bush's watch as its effectiveness was compromised when its usage as a technique to interrogate HVTs became common knowledge (applied to only 3 HVTs). President Obama's 2009 EO signed upon his first day in office banning all EITs was basically redundant on the torture issue, since President Bush essentially said much the same in his 2007 EO.
The media is reporting that both Cain and Bachmann would reinistate/support waterboarding, if elected. That's not exactly what they said, but it's not much of a distorted conclusion to arrive at, based upon their answers to the question posed.
If they meant they would have supported waterboarding at the time it was used, and that it did not rise to the level of definition for torture, then I think those are valid positions to hold. If, however, they do advocate for bringing it back specifically and not just reviving the EIT program in general, then I have to quibble.
What made waterboarding- and all the EITs in the CIA program- effective as tools against HVTs who were trained to resist standard interrogation practices, was in the not knowing. In the secrecy. Because of all the media attention and President Obama's decision to release the OLC "torture" memos describing the techniques, the Houdini psychological power of these techniques have been all but effectively nullified.
The CIA program should probably be revived; but now that the magic tricks have been revealed to its al Qaeda audience, demystifying the EITs, HVTs know that what they have to train against is the smoke and mirrors of simulated torture, and not real torture. So what techniques would a revived CIA interrogation program that goes beyond the Army Field Manual have to entail? Whatever they come up with, we the general public should not be privy to.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Why argue about it at all. The answer should be is the ‘victims’ are enemies that want to cut your childrens’ throats and kill everyone in this country. What’s so hard to understand about why we want to torture them for information that will help us stop this? If you are ‘secular’ and don’t believe in a vengeful God, then you shouldn’t have a problem with ‘humans’ taking their security and safety in their own hands.
Putting water up some guy’s nose for a couple of seconds is not torture. That said, if some captured terrorist knew where the ticking dirty atom bomb was hidden in DC or wherever, I’d want our guys to do whatever was necessary, up to and including REAL TORTURE, to make him talk. To do less, and accept the inevitable horrible deaths of thousands or millions of people, would be the height of immorality. Anybody who says otherwise is a fool, a liar, or a fraud. Which pretty much defines Obama in triplicate.
They should waterboard Sandusky to have him reveal everyone involved in his perverted sex ring.
“The question is moot!”
Rev. Jesse Jackson, 1985 Saturday Night Live
http://www.maniacworld.com/question-is-moot.html
Obama is torture having to listen to him day after day , but mute helps. It would be nice for the enemy to know that something would happen to them ,now they know they’ll be taken to a nice hotel with great food(of their choice)
“They should waterboard Sandusky to have him reveal everyone involved in his perverted sex ring.”
Yum
Drowning — even simulated drowning — creates certain physical reflexes and that induces panic. I’m not sure that one can be trained to resist more than a little bit.
Waterboarding, Water shmording; if there’s a dirty bomb planted somewhere, I want them to Jack Bauer the suspect.
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