Waterboarding- Worse than the rack and thumbscrews.

[kpete]

Waterboarding was the most extreme torture allowed by King James I of England.

This resurrects the process of official cruelty under the Stuart monarchs in seventeenth century England. Persons accused of state crimes very frequently were interrogated with the use of specific techniques, including the rack, the thumbscrew, and waterboarding. King James I personally described the process in The Kings Booke (1606). He would, on the advice of his officers, “approve no new torture,” but he would certainly avail himself of the existing practices. In ascending order of severity they were: thumbscrews, the rack and waterboarding. That’s right. Waterboarding was considered the most severe of the official forms of torture. Worse than the rack and thumbscrews.

Sure shows how much we've progressed from the 17th century.


more at:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/12/hbc-90001917
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/011521.php

[ThomWV]

1. One has to wonder who submitted to every form of torture to determine this

Or maybe they just ran a survey in the Tower of London.

[MuseRider]

2. Oh we have progressed

it is just that our current masters have driven us back into the caves.

[kurth]

3. Michael Mukasey asks "Who is King James?"

THE CIA'S SIX 'ENHANCED' TECHNIQUES

CIA interrogators say they are allowed to use six "enhanced interrogation techniques", each progressively tougher, on top al-Qa'ida detainees. Their superiors have to give separate approval for every prisoner and every method, all claimed to be legal.

THE ATTENTION GRAB: The interrogator forcefully grabs the shirt front of the prisoner and shakes him. Israel, the only democracy to have openly debated coercion of prisoners, declared this legal in 1987, but the Supreme Court ruled it out in 1999.

THE ATTENTION SLAP: Interrogators may deliver "an open-handed slap", which is "aimed at causing pain and triggering fear".

THE BELLY SLAP: A hard open-handed slap to the stomach. The aim is to cause pain, but not internal injury. Doctors advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.

STANDING FOR HOURS: This technique is described as among the most effective. Prisoners are forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to a ring bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation are claimed to be effective in yielding confessions.

COLD TREATMENT: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept at around 10C, and constantly doused with cold water. Misapplication of this technique is blamed for the death of a detainee in Kabul.

WATERBOARDING: The prisoner is bound to a board, head slightly below the feet. Plastic is wrapped over his face and water is poured over him, or his head is lowered into a bath. The gag reflex is automatic; few can endure more than a matter of seconds.

http://www.president-bush.com/cia-torture.html

[cali]

4. what a silly ranking. Torture is torture.

And who knows how they did waterboarding in 17th century England anyway? What I do know is that ranking torture was silly then and it's silly now. It. Is. All. Bad.

[derby378]

5. I wonder about that assessment

The thumbscrews and the rack can (and often did) cause permanent damage, while the rack can sometimes even cause death. Waterboarding can drown, true, but it can also lead to pneumonia through aspiration of water into the lungs.

Not sure how I feel about this, except to say that torture is torture. Period. And George W. Bush is an evil man for allowing this to be done in our name.