so you have no problem with other countries torturing captured Americans, since it’s a necessary part of an effective intelligence gathering mechanism. all countries have the right to defend themselves from mortal threats afterall.

sesquipedalian on May 24, 2009 at 6:48 AM

In the case that may happen, I doubt the International Red Cross will be down the hall.

nice to see you dodge the interrogation question..

Moral equivalency at it’s finest..

people jumped out of the twin towers while it was on fire but sesquipedalian gets his panties in a was if KSM has water splashed on his face..

what is the difference between charging someone with rape or torture? either way they’ll end up in jail for a long time – and rapists also carry a lifelong stigma. rape and torture are prosecuted under different statutes, but the result is the same.

sesquipedalian on May 24, 2009 at 6:36 AM

Oh, I don’t think rape has nearly the stigma that waterboarding has, to the left, at least. I have two words for you: Roman Polanski. I’d like to see some of that incredible moral outrage the left, particularly the Hollywood left, reserves for President Bush, applied to him. Just for starters.

As for being in jail “for a long time” are you kidding me? Murderers routinely get out in seven years or less. And I’m not suggesting we fail to charge rapists for rape. I’m suggesting we charge rapists – and plenty of other criminals – with whatever their crime is PLUS torture. Again, here is my point: IF waterboarding is torture, THEN rape and many other crimes also should easily qualify as torture.

sesquipedalian can probably name some other form of “torture” that you can perform on somebody in public without being arrested.

Jim Treacher on May 24, 2009 at 12:39 AM

Guess not.

so you have no problem with other countries torturing captured Americans, since it’s a necessary part of an effective intelligence gathering mechanism. all countries have the right to defend themselves from mortal threats afterall.

I have a problem with the enemy KILLING our soldiers too, but that doesn’t mean we need to stop killing the enemy.

and what do you recommend these people do?

sesquipedalian on May 24, 2009 at 6:48 AM

I’d recommend they ask you why you suggest it’s necessary to waterboard millions of conservative Americans but not three foreigners who wanted to kill Americans.

In a way, you’re right – torture can lead to lies – but good intelligence gathering from an interrogation involves asking questions where we already know what the truth is as well as questions we don’t know the answers to, and ideally doing so in a way that the person being interrogated can’t tell the difference, so can’t figure out when to lie and when not to.

so you have no problem with other countries torturing captured Americans, since it’s a necessary part of an effective intelligence gathering mechanism. all countries have the right to defend themselves from mortal threats afterall.

Please attempt to watch less TV and think more.

and what do you recommend these people do?

If waterboarding is torture, then so is rape and so are a host of other crimes which also do to the victim all the same things the left claims waterboarding does – along with a ton of additional things. Let’s start charging people.

what is the difference between charging someone with rape or torture? either way they’ll end up in jail for a long time – and rapists also carry a lifelong stigma. rape and torture are prosecuted under different statutes, but the result is the same.

sesquipedalian can probably name some other form of “torture” that you can perform on somebody in public without being arrested.

sesquipedalian on May 23, 2009 at 8:48 AM
—–
And do you know how intelligence gathering is done?

Real intelligence gathering is not single-sourced, he-said, or hunches.

Real intelligence gathering is about piecing data from multiple sources together, branching out from one link to another to discover entire networks.

What we did *NOT* have (thanks to Democrats past, Clinton, Church Commission, etc.) was much data from Jihadi groups.

In a way, you’re right – torture can lead to lies – but good intelligence gathering from an interrogation involves asking questions where we already know what the truth is as well as questions we don’t know the answers to, and ideally doing so in a way that the person being interrogated can’t tell the difference, so can’t figure out when to lie and when not to.

Please attempt to watch less TV and think more.

Mew

Waterboarding, obviously, a minute later and you’re up and about. The left gets their knickers in a twist over being waterboarded, which has been done exactly 3 times by our government, and is done recreationally by shock jocks, pundits and youtubers, yet rape goes more or less unremarked.

If waterboarding is torture, then so is rape and so are a host of other crimes which also do to the victim all the same things the left claims waterboarding does – along with a ton of additional things. Let’s start charging people.

Am I diminishing rape? That’s certainly not my intention – on the contrary, I’m raising it up to the level of concern I think it deserves – FAR higher than waterboarding.

If I had a choice between being waterboarded daily, or being thrown into a typical american jail cell with 350 lb. Bubba who intends to…errr…get intimate with me, I’d choose waterboarding everytime!

So why can’t we now charge rapists with torture?

in some cases, you can. neither should be tolerated, but i still don’t get your point. i’m not advocating rape – you’re advocating something that, according to you, is not “materially different” from rape. aren’t you diminishing rape if you can list dozens of things much worse?

Without even trying, I can think of a dozen things worse than having a momentary drowning sensation in a tightly controlled situation.

How is rape materially different from waterboarding? Both sufferers are at the mercy of their captors, undergo an invasive procedure, are in fear for their lives, have potentially long-lasting psychological effects…

please correct me.

Laura on May 23, 2009 at 9:05 AM

Because he believes he is morally superior to you and I?

Hence.. what he says is and isn’t torture.

rape is akin to torture, and both are felonies as they should be. what’s your point?

No, no, no. Not “akin.” How is rape materially different from waterboarding? Both sufferers are at the mercy of their captors, undergo an invasive procedure, are in fear for their lives, have potentially long-lasting psychological effects… All the things the left claims make waterboarding so horrifically bad can be used to describe a rape. So why can’t we now charge rapists with torture?

i used to play water polo. let’s try something else, dave.

So it wouldn’t be torture for you then..

interesting.

sesquipedalian on May 23, 2009 at 8:48 AM

you really have no idea how normal police interrogations work.. do you?

Tell you what.. how about you and I both get waterboarded.. under the same conditions that KSM was.. whoever yields first.. loses.

i used to play water polo. let’s try something else, dave.

BTW.. if it was really torture, would Mancow really volunteered to do so?

he did it to prove it was not torture. mancow is a conservative.

you know, REAL torture.

whatever you think “real torture” to be, waterboarding is that it’s sufficient to force people to make false confessions. that’s the real problem, not how much pain ksm felt.

Sorry. You can’t have it both ways. Either you say it’s torture and you want it done to no one, or admit you are wrong.

You try telling a rape victim that what she experienced isn’t torture, if waterboarding is torture.

rape is akin to torture, and both are felonies as they should be. what’s your point?

Torture is something that leaves its’ victims disabled.

did anyone but talk show hosts confirm that to you?

sesquipedalian on May 23, 2009 at 7:40 AM

Tell you what.. how about you and I both get waterboarded.. under the same conditions that KSM was.. whoever yields first.. loses.

BTW.. if it was really torture, would Mancow really volunteered to do so?

If there was a ‘Wheel of Fortune’ of torture that was being spun to decide my fate.. I would be hoping and praying that there would be a ‘Waterboarding’ wedge. Instead of beatings with rubber hoses, bamboo shoots under the fingernails, broken kneecaps, injected with narcotics, scorpions being dropped on you..

you know, REAL torture.

Listening to Mancow is torture. I’ve tried.

Torture is something that leaves its’ victims disabled. Ask the guys suing the Chicago PD over torture if they’d rather have been waterboarded. (google Burge Chicago PD)

Hell, even Hollywood got it right. Go watch the ‘Firefly’ episode “War Stories”. That’s torture.

Mew

please come forward and subject yourselves one by one to show how crazy the “left” is. please try to last longer than mancow did and then start with your childish “worse than waterboarding” suggestions. until then, you’re loudmouth cowards.