CIA Director Hayden says waterboarding may be illegal

[HOMELESS CAMEL]

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Michael Hayden cast doubt on the legality of waterboarding on Thursday, a day after the White House said the harsh interrogation tactic has saved American lives and could be used in the future.

 

Hayden told the House Intelligence Committee that he officially prohibited CIA operatives from using waterboarding in 2006 in the wake of a Supreme Court decision and new laws on the treatment of U.S. detainees.

 

He said the agency has not used waterboarding for "just a few weeks short" of five years. He officially prohibited it from CIA interrogations in 2006.

 

Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his or her cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/mukasey_torture

[Uk4Life]

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Michael Hayden cast doubt on the legality of waterboarding on Thursday, a day after the White House said the harsh interrogation tactic has saved American lives and could be used in the future.

 

Hayden told the House Intelligence Committee that he officially prohibited CIA operatives from using waterboarding in 2006 in the wake of a Supreme Court decision and new laws on the treatment of U.S. detainees.

 

He said the agency has not used waterboarding for "just a few weeks short" of five years. He officially prohibited it from CIA interrogations in 2006.

 

Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his or her cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/mukasey_torture

 

WHAT? you have to be kidding me?? I mean simulating someone drowning is torture??

 

To me this was never a question of torture or not. It was about whether is was okay to torture to get information. I for one oppose torture b/c someone that doesnt have info, may be tortured.

[PepRock01]

Considering waterboarding doesn't cause any lasting physical damage, and is by no means life threatening I have no problem with it.

 

Sorry if I seem cold hearted but if it takes torture to get information that can be essential in defending our country then the ends justify the means.

[MoreheadEagle]

Information from torture is usually false. Do you really think there were that many witches in salem or heretics during the inquisition.

[PepRock01]

Information from torture is usually false. Do you really think there were that many witches in salem or heretics during the inquisition.

 

 

Different styles of persuasion and different ends. They were seeking confessions, we are seeking information. There is a difference.

[MoreheadEagle]

No. Actually there isn't. Many experts have asserted that torture usually produces false results b/c the person being tortured will say what the torturer wants to hear. Also, water-boarding isn't simulated drowning. It's drowning a person and bringing them back at the brink. It's controlled drowning.

[PepRock01]

No. Actually there isn't. Many experts have asserted that torture usually produces false results b/c the person being tortured will say what the torturer wants to hear. Also, water-boarding isn't simulated drowning. It's drowning a person and bringing them back at the brink. It's controlled drowning.

 

 

For what it's worth what are your sources to indicate that it doesn't work? Who are the experts of whom you speak?

 

I am not sure which descriptions you have read, but the ones that I have read clearly indicate simulation to me.

 

I have no care one way or another how we get information so long as we get it. If it requires torture that's fine, if it doesn't that works too.

[True blue (and gold)]

I will defer to John McCain on this one...he says it is wrong. As a tortured POW, he should know.

[True blue (and gold)]

Considering waterboarding doesn't cause any lasting physical damage, and is by no means life threatening I have no problem with it.

 

Sorry if I seem cold hearted but if it takes torture to get information that can be essential in defending our country then the ends justify the means.

 

So, if our enemy waterboards our soldiers/citizens, we should not consider it torture?

[PepRock01]

So, if our enemy waterboards our soldiers/citizens, we should not consider it torture?

 

 

Look, I am not looking for "moral highground" here. I figure you of all people would know this by now TB&G.

 

Good guy and bad guy is a matter of perspective.

 

For what it's worth I don't care if it IS torture or not. If we have to torture to get information then so be it. If we have more effective and more economical means of obtaining information then I would suggest using that.

 

Also terrorists and sub-nationals fighters are not soldiers nor do they represent governments or nations. So it isn't really an applicable term to these individuals.

[Hatz]

Considering waterboarding doesn't cause any lasting physical damage, and is by no means life threatening I have no problem with it.

 

Sorry if I seem cold hearted but if it takes torture to get information that can be essential in defending our country then the ends justify the means.

 

There is a very old custom of taking prisoners out to a courtyard of execution and being lined up before the wall. The firing squad comes in and takes aim and either fires in the air or not at all. It's a ruse to break down the prisoner.

 

Since they are not physically harmed, is this okay?

[PepRock01]

There is a very old custom of taking prisoners out to a courtyard of execution and being lined up before the wall. The firing squad comes in and takes aim and either fires in the air or not at all. It's a ruse to break down the prisoner.

 

Since they are not physically harmed, is this okay?

 

I am okay with it, yes.

[MoreheadEagle]

John McCain has stated that it doesn't work (he should know). Also, the WMD info that of course turned out bogus on Iraq was produced through torture. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/08/b134740.html

[ladiesbballcoach]

I have a very hard time accepting or supporting this country using means of torture. I am willing to accept McCain's view on the matter.

[cch5432]

John McCain has stated that it doesn't work (he should know). Also, the WMD info that of course turned out bogus on Iraq was produced through torture. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/08/b134740.html

 

Yes but it is also speculated that al-Libi said that so the U.S. would attack Iraq, which he believed would start a Jihadist war. You could be right as well, but it surely is not definitive proof that torture produces lies.

 

I am against it, but not really strongly. It's similar to the way I feel about the death penalty- I find it fundamentally wrong but there are more important issues out there to me.