Time for another “lefty gets waterboarded to prove how bad it is” clip
posted at 7:58 pm on April 21, 2009 by Allahpundit
Share on Facebook | regular view
Via Breitbart, a tragicomic staple of liberal anti-torture sanctimony from which not even Hitchens, alas, is immune. Every few months a new clip of some critic of waterboarding being waterboarded hits the web, and every few months a new iteration of web users is left to wonder, “If it’s so horribly bad, why is this guy willing to undergo it?” I told a friend earlier today that I hate blogging about this subject because there’s simply no reasoning with the other side. Like Ace says, the left is unwilling to defend banning the practice in good faith, on grounds that the trade-off in lost intelligence is worth the toehold on the slippery slope, because they’re unwilling to risk the political consequences of that position if we’re attacked again. So they argue disingenuously that enhanced interrogation never, ever, evah works, even though (a) sometimes it does and (b) some of the leading lights on their side actually define “torture” as a function of its efficacy. I’ll leave you with this nugget from Twitter. It’s as good a lead-in as any to the clip.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2
Still preferable to the “another skyscraper gets flattened to show how bad it is” option.
commenter on April 21, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Is this torture?
omnipotent on April 21,2009 at 8:58PM.
omnipotent:Me thinks,if after your done,you jam a Sham-Wow
up there!!haha.
canopfor on April 21, 2009 at 9:04 PM
What I want to see is a reporter ask Dick Cheney, “Did you authorize using the bug to terrorize this enemy combatant?” and VP Cheney answering,”I categorically deny approving the use of bugs. However I do admit to authorizing the use of rattlesnakes and badgers.”
peacenprosperity on April 21, 2009 at 9:06 PM
Torture is reading AP tweets to Meg :(
getalife on April 21, 2009 at 9:07 PM
How relevant would the guts of G. Gordon Liddy be if he chose this stunt over maiming his palms with a Bic lighter?
ericdijon on April 21, 2009 at 9:07 PM
Liddy laughs at this stuff.
peacenprosperity on April 21, 2009 at 9:09 PM
Why are you pimping out my name to get traffic to your twitter? And only my close friends call me Mac…
broker1 on April 21, 2009 at 8:57 PM
I’d reply: “Why don’t you spend five minutes doing something other than attacking people you claim are your friends?”
Or perhaps: “Tools are meant to be used.”
Merovign on April 21, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Cool! When can we show him how bad it is to have your arms bound behind you, hung by them and then beaten with truncheons until they come out of socket.
ronsfi on April 21, 2009 at 9:13 PM
Absolutely ingenious. Instant recovery, no long term harm. 5 seconds until he gives up.
What king of jello spined liberal would object to this as Torture.
So 1 dirtbag gets water up his nose with no risk of death or injury, and 1 million people live. Seems like a fair trade to me
Dpet on April 21, 2009 at 9:16 PM
She is warming up to you AP.
Poor on the charm.
getalife on April 21, 2009 at 9:16 PM
We fought the Iraq war to get rid of a dictator who really did torture,
maim & kill. For Obama to show the very people we fought the limit
that the U.S. imposed on itself is shockingly stupid.
Waterboarding is not torture – Please look below for real torture
and READ the disclaimers. Terrorists are still torturing & killing
peope all over the world.
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is posting 4 videos of actual torture and murder that took place under Saddam Hussein’s regime.
FDD President Cliff May notes: “Television news, understandably, will not broadcast such videos. But they are, nevertheless, an important record of Saddam Hussein’s crimes against humanity that should be available to the public as his trial resumes.”
WARNING: This material is extremely shocking and graphic in nature. It should not be viewed by children. Also, it may be necessary to turn the volume down before watching the 4 separate chapters.
Please note, each chapter may take several minutes to download.
http://fdd.typepad.com/fdd/files/1.wmv
http://fdd.typepad.com/fdd/files/2.wmv
http://fdd.typepad.com/fdd/files/3.wmv
http://fdd.typepad.com/fdd/files/4.wmv
izoneguy on April 21, 2009 at 9:16 PM
Exit question..
If all liberals/progressives water-board themselves each day, say at noon, and twice daily on weekends, would that be enough to shut them up?
I have plenty of water at my house if y’all run out….
TN Mom on April 21, 2009 at 9:19 PM
When I was in junior high, I would’ve done anything to have the Playboy Channel! Now, it looks as though I wasn’t really missing anything…
Tzetzes on April 21, 2009 at 9:21 PM
None I can see.
The effectivity of waterboarding only seems to show after, what, a hundred times?
Who’s to say? We’ve only tried it on three people. But I haven’t gotten the impression that it only works after multiples times.
Also, what’s your point here? That it’s no worse than sleep deprivation?
Prove? Sure I can agree with that.
Esthier on April 21, 2009 at 9:25 PM
Of course, the “procedure” demonstrated has no semblance to the procedure used. It’s a wonder they didn’t kill the poor bastard. Amateurs.
coldwarrior on April 21, 2009 at 9:29 PM
Y’all are like little babies — I’ll do it for a 6-pack. I’m in the DC area and could totally hold out for more than that wuss in the video. Did crazier shit in college. BY FAR. Hook me up!
pomerpants on April 21, 2009 at 9:30 PM
Gee, I guess the intrepid reporters will pass on the finger chopping and the rape rooms.
RobCon on April 21, 2009 at 9:48 PM
Man, I wish they were this mellow when I went through SERE 20+ years ago.
Roc on April 21, 2009 at 9:49 PM
Sadly, now terrorists can be just as arrogant as this prick reporter because they know they will not die.
RobCon on April 21, 2009 at 9:54 PM
These were not goat herders that somehow got mixed up with bad guys. We knew who they were and their value. Torture them and then throw them away, period. I’m totally fine with that. Thus far, the torture argument has been an abstraction for most people and the opposition has been able to define the terms. The voices of sanity need to describe who got what and what we learned and the vast majority of people will be down with whatever needs to be done. This is the sort of reaction we need.
moxie_neanderthal on April 21, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Now if this liberal idiot can just get himself beheaded by the bad guys, and tell us all about it, he than he may have a case!!!
byteshredder on April 21, 2009 at 10:04 PM
You would have loved being with us in 1970.
Old Hippie Vet on April 21, 2009 at 10:04 PM
They think that is bad? Give me a magneto and some wires and bring that clown to me for 24 hours.
Old Hippie Vet on April 21, 2009 at 10:11 PM
No lefty’s died nor permanently impaired during this attempted demonization of proven effective interrogation techniques.
Did the lefty confess to believing that Conservatives have limbic brain issues or maybe that arm farts are still fun?
Speakup on April 21, 2009 at 10:18 PM
I did that to my wife the other night, but it wasn’t a bucket of water. IYKWIMAITYD.
lorien1973 on April 21, 2009 at 10:25 PM
What was that thing were POW’s went through way worse that this…hmmm oh yeah, I remember, VIETNAM.
Rightwingguy on April 21, 2009 at 10:32 PM
I am beyond words on this one.
Old Hippie Vet on April 21, 2009 at 10:32 PM
I’VE HAD WORSE EXPERIENCES USING A NETI POT!
JOHNNYB on April 21, 2009 at 10:36 PM
Oh god yes. Neti pots. I tried that once. Never again.
lorien1973 on April 21, 2009 at 10:43 PM
We were all waterboarded when I went through E & E (now SERE)classes. It was done to show us macho men that you will tell the bad guys what they want to know if you were really tortured. Waterboarding is not now, and has never been torture, no matter what the ignorant libs say or think. There are absolutely NO lasting effects from waterboarding, other than not wanting to go through it again.
Nuts4koi on April 21, 2009 at 10:51 PM
WD1TT and a field phone. LOL
Nuts4koi on April 21, 2009 at 10:56 PM
Nobody ever volunteers for flaying or the bastinado. Weird, huh?
Jim Treacher on April 21, 2009 at 11:05 PM
why are the waterboarders in these videos always dressed scary. I would dress up like a clown or something to make it more light-hearted.
Joe Caps on April 21, 2009 at 11:06 PM
My older brother was ~ mid ‘71. I was the SRO, so I got to experience all the reindeer games, but his stories were still better.
Roc on April 21, 2009 at 11:07 PM
Yep. LOL
Old Hippie Vet on April 21, 2009 at 11:11 PM
I’m guessing this pansy would last longer being waterboarded than he would watching the Berg video, forcibly. Liberals truly are sissies; the Dems are a party led by Perez Hilton and Bowny Fwank.
Jaibones on April 21, 2009 at 11:12 PM
America has gotten soft. If my fellow Americans think these (including waterboarding) a torture, they’ve forgotten things that have been done to us in the past.
None of these techniques practiced cause permanent damage, except maybe a long lasting fear of the Neti Pot.
I too was exposed to some of these practices in training. You learned your tolerances and individual techniques in an attempt to combat interrogations.
The links provided by izoneguy demonstrate torture.
jack herman on April 21, 2009 at 11:17 PM
It’s only torture if the eyes are covered but NOT THE MOUTH AND NOSE.
What they just did was simulated Waterboarding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding
NOTE: “water poured into their mouths and noses until they lost consciousness”…
Meaning the face IS NOT COVERED.
DSchoen on April 21, 2009 at 11:23 PM
How frikkin’ soon Obama and his mush-headed minions forget the horrific torture and mind-scalding murders of 3,000 of their own fellow citizens at the hands of just such jihadist maniacs.
Barry and his superior prima donnas should all be forced to watch Nick Berg’s terrorist counterpart to waterboarding.
Every day.
Until their delusional moralizing cocoons open up.
And a little self-preservational sanity springs forth.
profitsbeard on April 21, 2009 at 11:27 PM
Did he do it for a Playboy bunny?
Captain America on April 21, 2009 at 11:56 PM
I thought their high moral standards would prevent them from being harmed, sorta like Superman. Up in the sky!!! Off to the left!!! It’s a fowl!!! It’s plain!!! It’s SuperLib!!!! Strange visitor from another world, fights a neverending battle for propaganda, illegal aliens, and the Ameriken Way!!!!
gordo on April 21, 2009 at 11:56 PM
So, 10 seconds after this supposed “torture”, our hero is up and talking and laughing. Wow, I thought his life would be over by now. And by the way, all that money you said you spent on psychotherapy? Might as well have thrown that money in the street.
gordo on April 22, 2009 at 12:04 AM
I need to add a couple
Waterboarding, or making a decision
Waterboarding, or waiting for the building to come crushing down on me.
Waterboarding, or waiting for the fires to engulf me.
Waterboarding or taking a swan dive from the hundredth floor because I don’t want to wait for the fires or the building to collapse.
DSchoen on April 22, 2009 at 12:10 AM
Watching a lefty get waterboarded is, to me, like porn.
29Victor on April 22, 2009 at 12:11 AM
Uhh…I can hold my breath longer than that.
As a practical joke, they should only pretend to waterboard the lefty, and actually drown him instead. Reverse psychology!
TexasDan on April 22, 2009 at 12:17 AM
I wonder, would the Hollywood left feel any differently if plane #5 hit a movie studio in LA with David Geffen and Steven Spielberg inside?
Greg Toombs on April 22, 2009 at 12:23 AM
Your support for torture will not allow you to see God.
It is evil.
getalife on April 21, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Your cranial rectal disease will not allow you to see god either, doofus.
Why is it that this pindick can post here, and I’m banned from the green board? Or green bored, whichever. Does this say something about HotAir, or just the liberal pusbags running the greenboard?
Spiritk9 on April 22, 2009 at 12:25 AM
I’m so torn…
On the one hand, these videos are remarkably stupid.
But on the other hand, we get to watch a Leftist being waterboarded!
Kensington on April 22, 2009 at 12:35 AM
Also, I like to think that God looks kindly on those who protect innocents from vicious, bloodthirsty terrorists but holds cowards who look the other way when confronted with evil in contempt.
Kensington on April 22, 2009 at 12:37 AM
If you look like you just took a bath, that’s not torture. If you are missing 3 fingers on your right hand, THAT’S torture.
Although, washing IS probably torture to some of these savages…
n0doz on April 22, 2009 at 12:44 AM
Hey, dig your tracks. Very “Arts of Space” meets LotR.
spmat on April 22, 2009 at 12:46 AM
“And gentlemen in
Englandthe Obama Administration now a-bedShall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhood cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us
upon Saint Crispin’s dayto keep the jihadists from getting it right, even once after 9/11.”coldwarrior on April 22, 2009 at 12:58 AM
So five or six seconds of deep deep…. well that is just really stupid when compared to saving lives. This guy is willing to do this for money. Saving lives is worth more than that. Especially now that we know it does work to save lives.
This whole debate is stupid and over.
petunia on April 22, 2009 at 1:14 AM
My point was that comparing a single session of waterboarding with something like boiling isn’t exactly right, because based on the examples we know waterboarding only works after constant repeats. But if you don’t think that’s necessarily the case, then it doesn’t matter.
egads on April 22, 2009 at 3:10 AM
I dare say having a root canal or an injection in your eyeball is worse than what that guy “went through.” Yet thousands of people go through those things every day.
There are a million and one things that people go through every day that are worse than being waterboarded. As long as I live I will never work out why lefties feel so bad about terrorists having water poured on their faces. Note how the left has throughout history rationalized and justified every kind of murderous barbarism just so long as it was part of a left wing revolution: tens of millions butchered, beaten, starved, tortured, executed and enslaved in the course of Marxist revolutions and lefties say things like “well, you don’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs!”
Play with the emotions of an Islamic terrorist who has information which could save the lives of innocent civilians and that’s it. Lefties are quivering with moral outrage.
Can we just cut the crap and accept that we’re dealing with people with absolutely no objective sense of value judgment whatsoever? It really is pointless to even engage with these stupid liberal a-holes any more. They are what they are.
Sharke on April 22, 2009 at 3:24 AM
The Leftists throw us a bone every so often.
Need more popcorn…
Dr. ZhivBlago on April 22, 2009 at 6:29 AM
As I said in a post about a year ago, “It can’t be torture if everyone wants to do it.”
tree hugging sister on April 22, 2009 at 7:06 AM
Funny but I don’t see liberals getting their genitals whacked off or electrified which I do believe meets the definition of torture, but this technique which causes minimum discomfort but maximizes information retrieval from terrorists is nowhere near torture. Also funny how democraps in control of congress for three years have not declared it torture either. Also interesting how we must be torturing our own troops since we use this technique on training them. And I concur that the libs can’t state that this technique has provided useful information since their mantra which I heard in school is that torture produces corrupt information since the person tortured will only say anything to stop the torture. It also comes from the liberal’s desire to destroy the foundation of western moral status by making western moral and political actions appear worse than those undertaken by those who declared war upon us. Only by villifying the west and the US in particular can they put the enemies of the US on a pedestal.
eaglewingz08 on April 22, 2009 at 7:06 AM
I wonder if he would volunteer to having his head cut off with a dull knife? Somehow I doubt that. Or maybe volunteer to be sitting in a plane when it plows into a building at 600 mph. Nope, don’t think so. Or maybe volunteer to being put in an oven to bake like a roast? Somehow I don’t think that would be a big hit on twitter. At least I hope not.
Terrye on April 22, 2009 at 7:12 AM
I guess libs are such wienies that they really do consider this the ultimate torture. But I don’t get why they keep doing it to themselves… could it be possible that the elite intellectual left aren’t all that smart after all…?!
4shoes on April 22, 2009 at 8:07 AM
To believe that waterboarding is unacceptable torture, you have to believe that 9/11 really wasn’t all that bad and put those 3000 dead innocents out of your mind. It was over seven years ago. That’s ancient history in this digital age, right?
No, I wouldn’t want to be waterboarded. (I’d like to be beheaded even less.) But I’m not planning death and destruction for countless Americans or trying to halt Iraq’s baby steps toward freedom and democracy.
If that bonehead liberal had died during the waterboarding I would have said “A: They did it wrong.” and “B: Now that’s funny!”
SKYFOX on April 22, 2009 at 8:24 AM
ROTFLOL!
29Victor on April 22, 2009 at 9:46 AM
Being a retired G.I. who experienced such acts in survival schools to teach us how to deal with water boarding and harsher tactics that we knew the enemy used.
It is not pleasant and if you do not know how to deal with it you could die because your mind says your going to die. The same goes with getting shot. If the bullet does not hit a vital organ and you administer first aid to control blood loss you will live. Yes it hurts like hell, but if you let your mind say your dead you die.
MSGTAS on April 22, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Just for fun I finally decided to watch one of these “waterboarding” clips.
That ain’t torture.
It may suck and be scary and all that but if there aren’t any broken bones, significant blood-loss, burn marks, or missing finger/toenails, it’s not torture. Slapping some guy around may decend into torture but it doen’t start out that way.
We all know what torture is; it’s just that liberal lawyers have gotten involved. And, par-for-the-course, they’ve f***ed everything up.
Don Carne on April 22, 2009 at 11:06 AM
What a wuss! Let me do it, the right way.
GarandFan on April 22, 2009 at 11:08 AM
+1
Henry V would like you. Shakespeare might wonder what you’re thinking though.
But alas, I’ll throw my quote in:
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
Chaz706 on April 22, 2009 at 12:19 PM
As for torture, I say we hire dentists.
That way, if anyone says anything we can simply say:
‘We were only performing needed medical procedures. We simply decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. Is there a problem with that?’
Chaz706 on April 22, 2009 at 12:21 PM
And one last comment for the thread:
‘If you can walk away without needing (or ever having the need for) a Doctor, a Dentist, or heaven forbid a Psych analysis, it ain’t torture.’
I add the dentist because anything to do with the teeth HURTS.
If they bring a bucket, you’re fine. If they bring a whip, you’re fine. If they bring a car battery, it’ll be rough, but you’ll usually be fine. If they call a doctor… you’re hosed.
Chaz706 on April 22, 2009 at 12:28 PM
I think they should cut out the water boarding and start slow slicing people’s head’s off. To music. Then release the videos on youtube with a manifesto of death and destruction
It is another solution
The journalist could compare tortures and choose
entagor on April 22, 2009 at 12:39 PM
I say we give them a nice relaxing lard lubricated massage, and if that doesn’t work then we waterboard them.
darktood on April 22, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Waterboarding… eh, if we’re going to extract information from terrorists and not want to leave marks, we should do it.. “The Cowboy Way”.
Naked tied to a fence leading a HUNGRY calf to the terrorists… ummm, manhood.
Dance lil’ sistah Dance!!
44Magnum on April 22, 2009 at 3:50 PM
I think he needs something to compare it to. Such as one of Sadam’s favorites, feet first in the wood chipper.
elifino on April 22, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Someone close to me served at Gitmo. After Abu-Ghraib broke we talked about some stuff. Being a good solder, he wouldn’t say much but I told him how I had it figured. He shook his head and said “Jeez, if you (a hillbilly from Missouri) can figure IT out, what the F*** is with the press?” I assured him that the press was not clueless, to which he replied, “Then they are criminals and traitors.”
Winners Win, Losers Negotiate!
Pole-Cat on April 22, 2009 at 7:30 PM
MMMM Bacon – The Smell Of Victory!
Pole-Cat on April 22, 2009 at 7:34 PM
I, however, am not a limp-wristed leftist. Waterboarding is torture. It should be illegal. I’ll defend that position even if innocent Americans should die in some future terrorism attack. I’d be against it, even if it were 100% effective.
Anyone who says it isn’t torture is an ignoramus or a liar. Anyone who supports it even though they know it to be torture is a sadist and an enemy of human rights. And the lefties who oppose it but won’t call for it to be made illegal are a bunch of spineless cowards.
Next topic!
Mark Jaquith on April 23, 2009 at 1:02 AM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2