Should anybody be charged with a crime for torture?
 

There has been a lot written about this in the last few days.

It is all in the point of view.

Are you the one doing the torture or are you the one getting tortured?

:eek:

were you following orders or acting on your own behalf?

Water boarding IS NOT torture. It may or may not scare the prisoner, it WILL exhaust him. Which will erode his resistance to questioning. It will NOT do him permanent harm.

Burning, blinding, whipping, breaking bones, hanging by the elbows for days on end are all TORTURES done to US prisoners OF WAR. And that was and has been done while we gave their SOLDIERS 3 hots and a cot. Plus basketball.
Obama WILL be out of office in 2016. Perhaps in 2012. Hopefully impeached soon. However it happens, and when it happens. He should be tried for TREASON in time of WAR!

Poorly worded poll.............

Yup...last one should reference "her" crimes.

Of course, water-boarding is torture... it's just Cheney-speak to call it an "enhanced interrogation technique." That's like calling a car crash an "unanticipated sheetmetal redeployment."

And, of course, it is a crime.

And, no...no one should be charged with a crime. They did what they thought was best for the country, with bipartisan concurrance. Too bad if it was torture.

Don't start a war with us if you can't take the repercussions.

Wow! I even got CW to respond in non-moderator mode!

Jamo, I probably should have made it 'the Clintons'. Feel free to fix it if you want.

Steve

Fixed it. You are most welcome. :)

Actually, if it's a crime in the time of war, we need to go way back.....

"On Jan. 21, 1968, The Washington Post published a front-page photograph of a U.S. soldier supervising the questioning of a captured North Vietnamese soldier who is being held down as water was poured on his face while his nose and mouth were covered by a cloth. The picture, taken four days earlier near Da Nang, had a caption that said the technique induced "a flooding sense of suffocation and drowning, meant to make him talk."

The article said the practice was "fairly common" in part because "those who practice it say it combines the advantages of being unpleasant enough to make people talk while still not causing permanent injury.""

Also....

"A CIA interrogation training manual declassified 12 years ago, "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation -- July 1963," outlined a procedure similar to waterboarding. Subjects were suspended in tanks of water wearing blackout masks that allowed for breathing. Within hours, the subjects felt tension and so-called environmental anxiety. "Providing relief for growing discomfort, the questioner assumes a benevolent role," the manual states.

The KUBARK manual was the product of more than a decade of research and testing, refining lessons learned from the Korean War, where U.S. airmen were subjected to a new type of "touchless torture" until they confessed to a bogus plan to use biological weapons against the North Koreans."
_____

The real question is: If someone you loved could die if you didn't take all reasonable steps to secure information from a person that knowingly had information that would save your loved one, would you use coercive interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding to secure the information?

I believe that everyone posting here would use whatever techniques available, possible some that are way over the line. Waterboarding isn't over the line in the time of war.

The problem is that politicians want to talk about this subject - what's done in the time of war should be up to the POTUS with input to Congress at the highest levels. That was done, we've been safe for years......

Dumb...anyone that committed a crime should be prosecuted and if found guilty...sentenced...especially a crime of this magitude...this isn't a partisan issue...a crime is a crime....lets get it all out....if the President wants to pardon anyone he has that absolute authority....arguing about what is or isn't a crime is stupid...the law will be clear if there is a indictment... lets clear the air and determine the facts...all of the facts...I for one do not believe there is any National Security risk...NONE...

If death is not possible thru the process, . . . and there is no personal physical injury, then it is not torture.

Having to go to work every day against your will is about at the same level :D.


.

Death is not possible thru the process, . . . and there is no personal physical injury...
..but, trust me, reading some of these Lounge posts every day is indeed torture.

:JEKYLHYDE

now dats a good one and I DON'T WANT YOUR JOB EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

Now that is the quote of the week - I just don't see how you and Jamo do it.

So, your experience is that after looking over most lounge posts you basically would like to post back....


Funny, I also have the same experience....

If you ever need any help - I've gathered up targets....

and that is the bottomline - no death, no personal physical injury - it's not torture.

With one exception - listening to Obama every day since he was elected - now that seems like torture to me.....

CdC,
We were told by Jamo to stay away from each other. You really should pay attention to what the Mods tell you.

You also requested, and Jamo confirmed, that I not post on yout threads, so get off mine.

Steve

Looks like barf is lookin for an argument, well...have fun..

I never promised to get off your threads, it's a free world for now - as long as one plays by the rules - therefore, you are stuck with me, get over it.

...tsk tsk.... gonna close another one soon, I guess.

You two kids just can't get along, can you?