A FEW WORDS ON WATER BOARDING & TORTURE ..

OK, it's official. Water boarding and/or torture techniques were approved by the Bush White House. But fortunately for us, according to former CIA officer John Kiriakou, when the “enhanced interrogation” techniques were practiced on captured al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah we were able to secure useful information. So that makes it OK, right? Not exactly.

There are several problems with the evolving narrative. As former CIA officer Larry Johnson points out,

1) John Kirakou, did not participate in the water boarding of Abu Zubaydah (i.e. he can’t say what else was done).
2) The information provided by Abu Zubaydah did not cover areas inside the United States (which raises questions about national security).

Then we have these technicalities.

1) The U.S. Supreme Court held in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) that detainees captured in the war on terrorism are protected by Art. 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
2) Water boarding also falls under the descriptions outlined in the 1987 “Convention Against Torture ...” which tells us that water boarding is ILLEGAL.
3) (For the Christians) Unless you’re partial to the Old Testament, I’m not sure Jesus would approve.

But wait, there’s more. Apparently the U.S. has a history of pursuing convictions against military personnel for conducting water boarding on U.S. soldiers, and against the enemy.

1) We convicted Japanese soldiers for using water boarding on U.S. servicemen during WW II. Seitara Hata received 25 years of hard labor for his acts.
2) Larry Johnson tells us after the accompanying photo was shown by the Washington Post in 1968 an investigation was conducted by the U.S. Military and a court martial followed.

At the end of the day, while I’m not a fan, I have to agree with John McCain on this: It “is not about who they are. It’s about who we are.”

- Mark