Joe Conason: Maybe Rudy should try waterboarding himself

When Rudy goes waterboarding

The former mayor says "liberal newspapers" have exaggerated the technique's brutality. Perhaps he should try it himself.

By Joe Conason


Oct. 26, 2007 | Echoing Michael Mukasey, his friend and associate who likely will soon be the next attorney general, Republican presidential front-runner Rudolph Giuliani claimed Wednesday that he doesn't know whether waterboarding is torture. Having become accustomed long ago to making the most absurd declarations without fear of challenge, Giuliani went further than Mukasey's hesitant demurral.

"I don't know what is involved in the technique," Mukasey replied during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, when Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a former prosecutor, asked whether Mukasey thinks waterboarding constitutes torture and is therefore illegal as well as unconstitutional. Perhaps Mukasey (and Giuliani) should be subjected to the technique for strictly educational purposes so that they will become aware that it involves reclining the victim on a bench or table, covering his face with a cloth and then pouring water over his nose and mouth to make him feel as if he is drowning.

People who have suffered this kind of treatment -- at the hands of Japanese military intelligence officers, for instance -- have described it as horrific. Experts have determined that it can result in permanent physical and psychological damage and can even result in death.

But that very unpleasant experience may or may not be a form of torture, according to the former New York mayor. "I'm not sure it is, either," said Giuliani when asked about Mukasey's dodge at a forum in Iowa. "It depends on how it's done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it."

Such lazy-minded clichés -- "it depends on the circumstances" -- are emblematic of the moral relativism that swaggering absolutists like Giuliani claim to despise in liberalism. He went on to disparage media coverage of the technique, claiming that "liberal newspapers" have exaggerated its brutality. "So I'd have to see what they really are doing." Perhaps as president, he would attend the interrogations and even pour a few pitchers over the face of a suspect himself.

If tough Rudy does go waterboarding, however, he should have no illusions about its status under American law and tradition. As a former federal prosecutor, he should know that the United States has indicted, convicted and punished a substantial number of torturers whose offenses included waterboarding or, as it used to be known, "the water cure." American prohibitions on the mistreatment of prisoners date back to George Washington, but the earliest prosecution of an American military officer for using that particular technique occurred in 1902, during the U.S. occupation of the Philippines under the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/10/26/giuliani_and_torture/

In about three seconds the wusses will be confessing to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.

if he's really a witch ( or perhaps a warlock.)

Do we really need to waterboard to know that?

Mz Pip
:dem:

BURRRRRN HER!

one of the newts, or was it John Cleese?

..if they were waterboarded before the assembled Senators and Congressfolks...

Considering reports that veteran CIA operatives lasted a maximum 14 seconds while undergoing waterboarding in training, we could settle the whole matter to everyone's satisfaction in less than 30 seconds... :sarcasm:

He should be challenged to undergo this treatment & then asked his views on it afterward.
He & Mukasey & others that question whether water boarding is Torture are liars regarding their answers to the questions about this.