Olby to Mancow: Tell me how awful waterboarding is
posted at 3:56 pm on May 27, 2009 by Allahpundit
If our modern-day Murrow was so curious to know, he could have taken a much more direct route to finding out. As it is, this is one of the precious few times you’ll find him deigning to interview a conservative — and naturally, it’s a missed opportunity. The salient policy question here isn’t “how bad was it?”, it’s “knowing what you know now, do you still condone it in emergency situations?” The closest Olby gets to that is to ask Mancow if he thinks he’d get a truthful answer from a suspect who’s been waterboarded, but that’s a variable that’ll turn on what an individual suspect knows and what his particular reaction to the process is. (Mancow says if he had any information he’d have given up, then adds that he’d have said anything to make it stop.) Unless Kayo’s suggesting that no suspect would ever react by giving up useful information, his question’s a non-starter. The better line of attack is to ask whether, irrespective of its usefulness, the technique is so inhumane that it simply shouldn’t be used. That’s a non-starter too, of course — in a true emergency situation, with an attack impending, the CIA will do what it has to do whether it’s legal or not — but at least it cuts to the heart of the matter.
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Video at the Weekly Standard: Playboy reporter got waterboarded, not sure it’s torture, thinks he got a buzz.
hawksruleva on May 27, 2009 at 4:59 PM
He’s gonna be the guy who gets the new show on MSNBC.
Can they just combine Maddow & Mancow to MadCow?
portlandon on May 27, 2009 at 5:01 PM
I’ll never understand people who are already famous, doing anything to go on anyone’s show just to get publicity. I have never been famous, and would love to get a call from MSNBC to go on one of their shows, just so I can tell them “hell no” and tell them where to stick their soy lattes.
Bleed_thelizard on May 27, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Actually, I accidentally described my bachelor party almost exactly — minus the dwarf dressed as a Roman centurion wielding the turkey baster.
LordDilly on May 27, 2009 at 5:07 PM
Completely.
Are you trying to argue that someone who has an affiliation with people that seek to directly threaten my right to walk out of church without being abused does not seek to do me harm? Do you really want to have this conversation with me, Esthier? I can guarantee that you won’t walk away with your head held as high as you did coming into it.
Exactly.
leetpriest on May 27, 2009 at 5:08 PM
My issue with this whole circle jerk of media types and other numb-skulls attempting to make some kind of judgment on waterboarding is what do they have to compare it to?
Watching The View is torture, but I would do it instead of have my fingernails pulled out.
Rosanne singing the national anthem is torture, but I would prefer that to a 1/2″ drill bit being driven into my thigh.
Listening to Rosie O’Donnell do…. well, anything is torture, but I would take it over what was endured in the basements of AQI safehouses.
I would gladly proctor a series of tests for Mr. Olbermann to decide from those things used by our enemies to torture people and our EITs what really amounts to torture and what does not.
Unless these idiots allow something truly nasty to be done to them along the lines of the maiming / disfiguring / scarring / permanent damage of psyche and body to establish a true baseline, waterboarding will most likely be the worst thing they have ever endured and therefore not close to what some train to endure at the hands of their enemies regardless of the side they are on.
jcrue on May 27, 2009 at 5:08 PM
Piff,waterboarding,back in the day,
when mem were men,keel-hauling was a
recreational sport!(Snark).
canopfor on May 27, 2009 at 5:12 PM
The police do far, far worse when apprehending American citizens who have committed even minor crimes.
Few people would complain when someone who is actively resisting arrest is pepper sprayed, tased, or struck.
Yet the scum like Khalid Sheik Mohammad can’t get water dumped down his nose to potentially save American lives? Please.
brogers on May 27, 2009 at 5:12 PM
You know, I’ve long suspected that Eric “Mancow” Muller isn’t Christian, isn’t conservative and is all about which way the most profitable wind blows in radio. He’s a pain-in-the-ass to listen to and it wouldn’t surprise me at some point if he went completely to the other side of the political spectrum if someone offered him enough $$.
A bit off topic and I apologize, but I wanted to get that out there. This guy isn’t everything he claims to be.
HadithHarry on May 27, 2009 at 5:13 PM
In a couple more years, waterboarding will be a college prank.
-
But they will use beer instead of water.
-
Beerboarding parties – Come on, prove your manhood.
-
esblowfeld on May 27, 2009 at 5:14 PM
I swear I thought “Mancow” was “Maddow” when I first read it.
SouthernGent on May 27, 2009 at 5:16 PM
Problem with this method of waterboarding is its not what is used officially. Mancow had water poured directly on his mouth and nose. The official method a cloth is placed over the whole face and water is poured onto the cloth. With the cloth in place, there is no chance the water will be forced up the nose or into the mouth.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft on May 27, 2009 at 5:21 PM
I think when Mancow drowned as a child his parents fudged the facts on just how long he was actually under.
heshtesh on May 27, 2009 at 5:22 PM
I swear I thought “Mancow” was “Maddow” when I first read it.
SouthernGent on May 27, 2009 at 5:16 PM
I did’nt notice is there a difference.
heshtesh on May 27, 2009 at 5:23 PM
As I’ve said before, get back to me when we make terrorists choose between jumping off a building or burning to death.
Pathetic.
Hawkins1701 on May 27, 2009 at 5:26 PM
This is the same guy (Mancow) who ran around nude in Chi. several years ago.The perfect person to have a new show on Msnbc.But the bathtub boy better be careful a guy this deranged could take over his time slot.
thmcbb on May 27, 2009 at 5:28 PM
Quick, someone check his wrists, I think they’ve gone completely limp.
Spiritk9 on May 27, 2009 at 5:28 PM
Some people get a sexual high from asphyxiation. This is a drowning reflex; could something similar be going on here? And if it is, should we be surprised that a reporter from Playboy is the one to experience it?
njcommuter on May 27, 2009 at 5:35 PM
Actually, I accidentally described my bachelor party almost exactly — minus the dwarf dressed as a Roman centurion wielding the turkey baster.
LordDilly on May 27, 2009 at 5:07 PM
Lol. Good one, Dilly.
jdflorida on May 27, 2009 at 5:42 PM
Nobody is mentioning that Mancow wasn’t waterboard like the prisoners at GITMO were. Namely, the GITMO Al Qaeda had celophane (sp) over their mouths and nose. No water went in. Every report shows that’s accurate.
AYNBLAND on May 27, 2009 at 5:44 PM
So the debates over… water-boarding has been proven effective.
regal on May 27, 2009 at 5:44 PM
Mancow supports the Boy Scouts of America and occasionally has other Right leaning ideas. He’s kind of the Lieberman of radio.
rihar on May 27, 2009 at 5:45 PM
Click on the vid but just couldn’t watch it…nope, not going to watch that crap.
d1carter on May 27, 2009 at 5:52 PM
ROFL
ddrintn on May 27, 2009 at 5:58 PM
Mancow supports the Boy Scouts of America and occasionally has other Right leaning ideas. He’s kind of the Lieberman of radio.
rihar on May 27, 2009 at 5:45 PM
Well as long as his support for the Boy Scouts of America does’nt run along the same line of support Barney Frank might want to offer i suspect he can’t be all that bad.
heshtesh on May 27, 2009 at 5:58 PM
“I drowned as a kid and I had to be revived… This is worse.”
Good. Now we know that Cheney is right. It works!
Dr. ZhivBlago on May 27, 2009 at 5:59 PM
think when Mancow drowned as a child his parents fudged the facts on just how long he was actually under.
heshtesh on May 27, 2009 at 5:22 PM
Maybe it was not an accident.
faol on May 27, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Chris Hitchens was waterboarded too, and was not a fan at all. He makes an excellent point- if we do it to people who REALLY don’t know anything, it would be really terrifying for them.
But that’s why we only waterboarded 3 guys whom other intel said had knowledge.
hawksruleva on May 27, 2009 at 6:08 PM
Maybe it was not an accident.
faol on May 27, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Thankfully i did’nt have a mouth full of food or drink.
heshtesh on May 27, 2009 at 6:09 PM
Dear Olberdouche,
Water boarding is a college prank. It is not torture. The daily atomic wedges you received in school were worse than this. And look how well you turned out.
Please find something shiny to occupy your tiny mind and quiet the voices in your head.
Thanks,
Another non-viewer
DeweyWins on May 27, 2009 at 6:18 PM
I think the point here is that when one is waterboarded to day, they are told they will not be drowned and that certain precautions will be taken. In Hitch’s case, he is saying, if you don’t know if you are going to survive it is terrifying.
I don’t think Hitch’s point was if you had intelligence to be extracted or not.
I find it also enlightening to see how this method was used by the NAZIs and the Japanese in WW2 and then comparing it to the process used by our people, e.g. towels, forewarning, doctors, more warnings, etc….
jcrue on May 27, 2009 at 6:19 PM
I’d like to see some survivors of the Bataan death march publicly weigh in on this. That would put this nonsense to rest once and for all.
OlympicLeprechaun on May 27, 2009 at 6:34 PM
Sorry. When you start supporting Olber(wo)man, you can just go ahead and grab your ankles along with the rest of the Obama worshipers.
oldleprechaun on May 27, 2009 at 7:32 PM
And
I’ve been saying the same things to anyone who will listen, since the fracas that took place at Abu Ghraib in 2004.
True methods of torture, physical or psychological, are self-evident. Such methods require no one to “prove” how “bad” those methods are, in practice.
Hey, Kayo, if you want to really prove that a certain method of breaking someone is psychological torture, I have an SD (sensory deprivation) tank with your name on it.
Dare ya to stay in it for an entire day, with an IV in your arm to keep up your blood sugar levels.
C’mon, Keith, got the stones for that???
/spit
Wanderlust on May 27, 2009 at 7:57 PM
Lets have Keith Overbite get waterboarded for, say, a couple of hours, then turn him over to Mike Vick’s dogs while dipped in blood then let the terrorists have him, he is their friend after all.
Good riddance.
dthorny on May 27, 2009 at 8:09 PM
Since president Obanana republic has set aside waterboarding, a good enhanced method would be to hang pictures of Olbermann in their cells and play his broadcasts 24/7. They’d give up anything with that.
wepeople on May 27, 2009 at 8:32 PM
I think he’s related distantly to Manbearpig.
And if waterboarding is so horrible, why do these douches keep doing it? It’s like the latest fad to hit.
4shoes on May 27, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Why does this mancow think it is toture? I WANNA KNOW.
paulsur on May 27, 2009 at 11:04 PM
This Mancow is the same guy I heard yukking it up with Drew (wife killer) Peterson on the radio today. He’s not exactly a conservative.
Bikerken on May 28, 2009 at 1:25 AM
As a Chicagoan-I talk to Mancow at the Chicago TeaParty-I’ll just say that Mancow is all about Mancow.
He just likes stiring the pot.
annoyinglittletwerp on May 28, 2009 at 2:47 AM
This is so stupid and childish. Of course waterboarding is a very awful & terrifying experience, that why it works! Some avoid using the word “torture” for it because that word has strong associations with mutilation. Whatever you want to call it the point is that it can extract life saving information from terrorists we are reasonably sure have this information. What is the matter with people? Grow up I say! And don’t say childlike stupid stuff like, “It’s against our values”. Keeping alive our family & love ones is value #1. If a grownup is not willing to have terrorists waterboarded (“torture” or not) to save his family and probably others then IMO he is childish & contemptible.
Chessplayer on May 28, 2009 at 9:36 AM
Agreed. Well said.
HadithHarry on May 28, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Illogical. If Olbermann thinks that it’s torture, why would he submit to torture? It only makes sense for people who dont believe it’s torture to submit to it.
That’s actually not terribly salient. Regardless of whether a shock jock condones it, it’s still illegal. Olbermann could have asked if the laws should be changed, though.
Exactly. And these things are inherently unknowable to the torturer. One of many reasons it’s a bad idea.
It’s also missing the point, given that it doesnt matter if something is “so inhumane”. There arent degrees of inhumane treatment in the law. If treatment is inhumane, such as waterboarding, it is illegal.
orange on May 28, 2009 at 1:46 PM
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