...make it this one, by Malcolm Nance, a longtime counter-terrorism agent:
The carnival-like he-said, she-said of the legality of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques
has become a form of doublespeak worthy of Catch-22. Having been
subjected to them all, I know these techniques, if in fact they are
actually being used, are not dangerous when applied in training for
short periods. However, when performed with even moderate intensity
over an extended time on an unsuspecting prisoner – it is torture,
without doubt. Couple that with waterboarding and the entire medley not
only “shock the conscience”
as the statute forbids -it would terrify you. Most people can not stand
to watch a high intensity kinetic interrogation. One has to overcome
basic human decency to endure watching or causing the effects. The
brutality would force you into a personal moral dilemma between
humanity and hatred. It would leave you to question the meaning of what
it is to be an American....
[Waterboarding] does not simulate drowning, as
the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate
that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends
on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into
the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor
watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the
physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from
painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to
the final death spiral.
Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to
contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the
person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is
horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to
terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of
physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its
use again and again....
According to the President, this is not a torture, so future torturers
in other countries now have an American legal basis to perform the
acts. Every hostile intelligence agency and terrorist in the world will
consider it a viable tool, which can be used with impunity. It has been
turned into perfectly acceptable behavior for information finding.
Read the whole thing. (Via James Joyner, via Alex Massie)
--Christopher Orr