Former Interrogator: Ban Waterboarding

[caligirl]

Source: AP

By LAURIE KELLMAN – 3 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former interrogation instructor for the Navy on Thursday said the words that congressional Democrats wanted to hear from Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey: waterboarding is torture and should be banned.

"Waterboarding is torture, period," Malcolm Wrightson Nance, a former Navy instructor of prisoner of war and terrorist hostage survival programs, told a House constitutional subcommittee. "I believe that we must reject the use of the waterboard for prisoners and captives and cleanse this stain from our national honor."

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said at the panel's hearing that he is against torture but that "sometimes we have to take measures to protect the innocent that we do not like."

"Severe interrogations are sometimes part of doing that," added Franks, the ranking Republican on the panel.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gPVYG7lRx4WXnsqQABEw...

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The Penatgon refused to allow Col. Couch to testify as scheduled today.

Trent Franks office number is 202-225-4576

[annabanana]

1. Note: Nadler DID read Col. Couch's opening statement..

His chair, however, was empty..

[gateley]

2. The Pentagon refused to let him testify? Well I'm gad he's getting air time

on TV and radio. Jesus.

[adadem]

3. "cleanse this stain from our national honor"

has he got that right!

[aquart]

4. Then Mr. Franks is NOT against torture.

He is for it.

[caligirl]

7. I called his office and said what I had to say, Franks has no military service

he is a chickenhawk tied to James Dobson. My hubby went on three deployments, saw several friends die in helo accidents(he had two close calls himself and 22 years of service) while Franks thumped his bible all the way to Washington.The staffer hung up on me and so I called back and complained to another staffer about hanging up on wives of military men.
My husband is going to call and chew them out good.

[rockybelt]

5. Hey Malcolm

is there any chance that you might want to do some personal tutoring for Mukasey, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Scooter, the press secretary broad on the art and technique of waterboarding? I would gladly cover your fee for this.

[gratuitous]

6. Waterboarding is already banned

By our Constitution and the treaties the U.S. is a signatory to (that is to say, the highest laws of the land), waterboarding is already banned. It's only sophistry by this corrupt administration and its toadies in the major media that like to pretend that there's some dispute. And the American people should decline to head down the path that the Bush administration is inviting us to go down.

To wit: Every little nuance, every little tactic, every little extra squeeze of someone's testicles will be subject to endless analysis and argument. Is waterboarding really torture? How about hooking up alligator clamps to someone's nipples? Is a 12-volt battery too much? How about 9 volts? Okay, we don't clamp their nipples; is it okay to put the clamps on their tongue? The gooch? The anus?

Before you know it, you're contemplating the minutiae of stuff you'd rather not consider at all, anywhere at any time. And you're having to argue over and over again that, yes, pulling someone fingernails (or thumbnails or toenails) is torture. So is opening gaping wounds and pouring in hot salt water. Or vinegar. Or sulfuric acid. Even real diluted sulfuric acid. Red hot pokers are right out. As are white hot pokers. Yes, even dull red hot pokers.

And the justifications are just as bogus. I don't care if we somehow intercepted terrorist bad guy and we know that he knows all about some nefarious plot, but we just don't know what it is or who any of his associates are, for some reason. And though we're positive we've got a bad guy on our hands, no, we don't know what he might be targeting, or when his nefarious plot is going to come to fruition. And no, we're pretty sure his co-conspirators aren't smart enough to notice he's missing or to change their plans ever so slightly so that even if he tells the truth, that truth is no longer operable.

It's just a bunch of nonsense being perpetrated on the American people to pretend that torture is efficacious, necessary, or will yield anything worth acting on at all. What it really boils down to is scared little boys satisfying their worst bullying instincts.