I was waterboarded in SERE school in 1995. The reason that's relevant is because it sets a precedent. Not only was I was waterboarded in SERE school, but also hundreds if not thousands of other Sailors and Marines have been waterboarded and have set this long established precedent that it is a safe legal technique when administered properly.
From the excerpts from "memo's" that I've read, SERE instructors passed on the same techniques to the CIA.
If it's legal to be administered on me, then how can it be ILLEGAL when administered to an enemy combatant as an interrogation technique?
Yes it may be immoral. Yes it can be of questionable strategic intelligence value. Yes it has invigorated our enemies. Maybe it should never have been used. But Illegal??? Um no.
How I feel right about now…
1 week ago
You had me agreeing 100% until the line, "Yes it is of little strategic intelligence value."
ReplyDelete“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,”
-Adm. Dennis C. Blair, Intelligence director.
Deeper understanding is why people that collect strategic intelligence get paid.
Touche. Mea culpa. My bad, I meant yes it can have some intelligence value, but (I bet even Admiral Blair would agree) that it is often very unreliable information.
ReplyDeleteAnd to support your point even further: Pres. Obama has NOT ruled out authorizing similar interogation techniques if given the right circumstances.
Everything is relative. So compared to an ideal situation, waterboarding may produce high value info, gotcha. But compared to the big picture, it losses some value.
Regardless, it's not illegal in the context of interrogating an enemy combatant.
Didn't mean it as a gotcha, just a small quibble in an otherwise well thought out and stated opinion.
ReplyDeleteI love small quibbles. They make me better in the future.
ReplyDeleteKeep 'em coming.
Interestingly enough, we prosecuted several Japanese soldiers after World War 2 for using waterboarding against American and Allied troops. So explain to me how it was illegal for the Japanese to use waterboarding on Americans and our allies, but now it's okay for America to use waterboarding against our enemies.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15886834
Using your own link, It was Chinsaku Yuki that was accused and prosecuted in 1947 of torture and killing civilians (you convieneintly left out the part about killing civilians). Also he used a continuous stream of water from a faucet until his victims were unconscious.
ReplyDeleteYou have every right to your opinions. But not your own facts. The fact is that these prosecutions were different. To say that they are the same is pure stinky politics.