Posted on 02/08/2008 5:51:12 PM PST by NormsRevenge
MEXICO CITY - The United Nations' top human rights official said Friday that waterboarding — a tactic used by the U.S. in its battle against terror — qualifies as torture.
The Bush administration acknowledged for the first time this week that it waterboarded al-Qaida detainees. Vice President Dick Cheney said it was "a good thing" that the prisoners had been forced to give up helpful information.
The interrogation method involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning.
"I would have no difficulty describing the practice as falling under" international definitions of torture, said Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, at a news conference wrapping up a four-day visit to Mexico.
She praised "Mexico's international advocacy for the rights of migrant workers, for persons with disabilities and against the death penalty," but expressed concern about Mexico's use of heavily armed soldiers to fight drug trafficking and other organized crime
Arbour said use of the military should be "a short-term solution" and should be used "with maximum human rights protections."
Mexican President Felipe Calderon said this week that he would eventually replace the army with police in the drug battle, but he said soldiers were necessary until the country can clean up a largely corrupt police force.
Asked about reports that Central American migrants are sometimes abused in Mexico, the commissioner called on Mexico "to extend the same level of protection (to the migrants) that it is advocating for Mexican migrants in the U.S."
Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, of Canada, speaks during a press conference in Mexico City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2008. Arbour, the UN's top human rights commissioner, said that water boarding qualifies as torture, and that Mexico must treat Central American migrants to this country with the same respect it demands for Mexicans living in the U.S. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Personally, I’d take water boarding every day rather than listen to a U.N. representative drone on for an hour.
Using US tax dollars to support that horrible organization is cruel and unusual punishment.
US Official: UN officals are anti-American idiot scum.
Personally, I think that being part of the UN qualifies as torture.
and tax dollars spent on the UN qualifies as an insult to humanity
We should be waterboarding the UN. Bunch of corrupt, sleezy sc##bags. They consistantly bite the hand that feeds them! UN OUT OF USA NOW!
Louise .... just shut up. Go take care of your kids (if you have any.)
Exactly.
I'm interested in the opinions of people actively engaged in putting an end to the terror zombies. People who actually have to deal with this directly, face to face, their judgment interests me. Someone who will never have to face it, because people better than her are doing the job, their opinions have no importance at all.
Louise.
You may be related to Billie Jean King.
Well, I guess it's settled then.
McCain agrees.
or a beaver
Then again, there are some people who think sleep deprivation as a method of interrogation is torture. Just can't reason with them.
Maybe these UN people should spend their time getting worked up about terrorists who behead innocent people slowly with dull knives. But then again, I don't recall the UN getting worked up over the death of CIA agent Richard Buckley, who was skinned alive by Hezbollah in Lebanon back in the 80s. Or maybe they did. I was only 14 or 15, so I don't really remember. My guess is they probably said he was asking for it, since he was a CIA man.
exit82: The whole UN is torture.
we waterboarded exactly 3 people.
Millenium LAX plotter
Guy who killed Daniel Pearl
Khalid Sheik Muhammed - Architect of 9/11
The UN can kiss my ass.
Why didn't she just say, "Waterboarding is torture." She says she would have no difficulty describing the practice as falling under" international definitions of torture, but if she is a liar, this is meaningless. She could equally well say, "I have no difficulty describing the practice of tickling the soles of feet with feathers as falling under" international definitions of torture". This is phrased as Bill Clinton might phrase it.
We need one page of these that are fronts and, one page of these for the backs, that we can print and cut, to fill the prepaid envelopes from the RNC and the ACU.
There will be a price to pay for supporting McCain.
We can vote conservative on Senate and House primary seats, and vote for anyone other than McCain on the Presidential seat, including a democrat in the general election.
More reason to exit the United Nation Organization. It is abn organization. We should keep reminding each other that it is an unelected, non-governmental organztion, lest people more and more accept the U.N.O. as legitimate government. It is not legitimate, and Mr. Truman was wrong about it. It has created more strife and fighting thatn it has ended to legitimize its own existance.
Getting out of the U.N.O. or even limiting its influence will certainly not be a goal of a McCain presidency, will it.
Bet she spent a lot of nights at home in High School.
(I kid, I kid...)
So let me get this straight... Mexico's illegal alien policy is worth praising and UUUggghh... I can't even finish my post... whats the point? Were talking about the UN.
Of course it is.
So what?
They all thought he deserved it.
Compassion for the uncompassionate is seen only as a weakness.
The U.N. knows all about torture. Just ask the Congolese women and children abused by U.N. peacekeepers.
Simply put, the UN is UNamerican and that’s the problem.
I’m guessing they have no problem with beheading because they don’t talk about that as torture?
Yawn, this comes from the organization that sends its people in to rape and murder?
Starvation is torture , and that’s what happened to a lot of people in Iraq while Kofi and his buds were playing their game with Oil for Food. Matter of fact, starvation happens in mass pretty much every time the UN goes in to help the hungry.
The new dollar bills are in early this year! Have you seen the Sinaloa quarter yet?
Torture? Did somebody say torture?
No.
“Louise.
You may be related to Billie Jean King.”
Now that’s funny. I had to go look when I read it.
__________________________________________
Waterboarding is torture, the question is whether or not we care if they use the technique.
Just curious... what do you consider to be torture? What do you think constitutes acceptable interrogation practices?
To be honest I recently investigated different methods for interrogation and I do believe that it is a form of torture. However it appears to be quite effective. I think it is more humane than other methods. Whether or not we should be employing these techniques, well that should be left for the military to decide. I do not wish to know all the ugly details. I do not believe the media should not be showing these techniques or even reporting on it. Sometimes things have to be done for the greater good. I just wonder how guys that perform these acts sleep, as a female I could not do it.
it doesn’t hurt, it just scares.
what does the u.n. call beheading?
I would say we agree on the part that it is "more humane" than some of the other methods, but it is still far less drastic than some of the 'other' techniques that are used by some people.
I went through SERE at the Air Force Academy back in 1970. We were all sleep deprived, phsycologically manipulated, and physically manhandled (all in a training situation.)
For a suspected terrorist, against whom we have ample evidence, waterboarding doesn't seem too extreme to me.
Come to think of it, that IS what happened:)
So you can waterboard some pot-head during a weekend rally, then he can go about his business and brag about it to the hippie chicks so he can try to get lucky... and I'm supposed to be outraged by how brutal it is?
Of course it is.
So what?
But, General Mladic, when do we stop this?...This will build and the whole world will hate us. We just can't keep going in this direction./s
Ahem, trust me, I know.
F Louise Arbour. She s POS from French Canada and also creates probluems for Israel
Why, because you say so? You are an idiot who doesn't know what real torture is. If did you would beg to be water boarded rather than have fingers clipped off, teeth knocked out, electrodes attached to genitals, bones broken, starved of water and food for days
Your remarked are sick and dumb
“Must-have-global-tests”
That’s torture!
Bring back panties on the head.
Having to endure this absurd organization on our shores is torture.
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