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'Waterboarding broke al Qaeda captive in 35 seconds,' says former CIA agent defending torture
Daily Mail ^

Posted on 12/12/2007 6:37:32 AM PST by UKrepublican

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1 posted on 12/12/2007 6:37:34 AM PST by UKrepublican
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To: Tribune7; SoCalPol; Lil'freeper; mrsmel; wideawake; chasio649; expatpat; HanneyBean; goose; ...

PING


2 posted on 12/12/2007 6:37:47 AM PST by UKrepublican
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To: UKrepublican

Those who protest this would rather have had the dozen or so attacks happen than this terrorist receive 35 seconds of discomfort.

Don’t give me that “we’re better than this”.

What’s worse?
35 seconds of water up the nose to save thousands of civilians’ lives?

The razing of Dresden?
Two A-Bombs on civilian population centers to end a war?


3 posted on 12/12/2007 6:39:57 AM PST by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: Baynative

IE, it’s all theoretical until the question comes down to whether you’re willing to sacrifice your family and friends’ lives to make a political point.


5 posted on 12/12/2007 6:43:06 AM PST by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: UKrepublican

.....but Anderson Cooper calls it torture!!!!!!


6 posted on 12/12/2007 6:43:42 AM PST by period end of story (You need cooling, baby I'm not fooling)
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To: MrB
The people who complain about waterboarding are actually the same people who complain about the completely justified and well-deserved bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
7 posted on 12/12/2007 6:43:50 AM PST by wideawake (Why is it that so many self-proclaimed "Constitutionalists" know so little about the Constitution?)
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To: MrB

I hate getting water in my nose when I’m swimming. It’s happened a couple of times.

As a result, I’m still alive and well. Yes, everybody has a fear of drowning, but it’s done in a controlled environment.


8 posted on 12/12/2007 6:45:08 AM PST by wastedyears (One Marine vs. 550 consultants. Sounds like good odds to me.)
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To: UKrepublican
*sigh*

It's not torture.

Getting audited by the IRS is torture.

9 posted on 12/12/2007 6:45:25 AM PST by AngryJawa ({IDPA, NRA} All Hail John Moses Browning)
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To: MrB

Let’s try this approach.

In a situation where the interogators feel that simulated drowning is warranted to get someone to talk — only in the event of saving a number of lives, for example to extract information on a terrorist attack . . . . tell the perp up front that this is a simulated drowning. That he will not die, but he will think that he is going to die.

Then proceed with the waterboarding. If the guy knows intellectually that he can survive, it won’t be a life-or-death decision. The perp can decide if he wants to talk or not.


10 posted on 12/12/2007 6:45:38 AM PST by i_dont_chat (Your choice if you take offense.)
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To: wideawake

“The people who complain about waterboarding are actually the same people who complain about the completely justified and well-deserved bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

And yet remain silent on gas chambers in concentration camps, the London Blitz and similiar atrocities.


11 posted on 12/12/2007 6:46:27 AM PST by LottieDah (Democrats in charge equals attack of the asshats.)
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To: MrB

I usually pose the question in those exact terms when discussing this with liberals. They always concede that they would use torture (which waterboarding ain’t) to save their own family. At that point, checkmate.


12 posted on 12/12/2007 6:47:55 AM PST by ReluctantDragon
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: UKrepublican; joanie-f; Lurker; Noumenon; Squantos; Eaker; Joe Brower; meadsjn
You know what, if the tango knows something and spills after a few minutes of not being able to get enough air, and it saves American lives...particularly when we know that it thwarted terror attacks on the US...then do it till the sun don't shine.

These fools talk about this like it some kind of clinical, theoretical college class. It is not. It is a death struggle.

If you are in a fight, bare knuckels, with someone who want to kill you...I have news for you, all the niceties go away. You kick, gouge, scratch, bite, pull, tear...whatever is necessary to survive and keep the other person from killing you. Real quickly, all the gentile mannerisms go away in an effort to stay alive.

We are in such a fight with radical islam. Our GIs in World War II and Marines were in such a fight with the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese...in many cases, particularly in the Pacific, prisoners were not taken. Those who tried to surrender (after a number who did killed our people after doing so) were executed, or burned alive in their pill boxes. Whatever measures necessary to assure victory and save American lives were taken, including beating the you-know-what out of prisoners to find out the enemiy's intentions. Sorry if that needles some folks sensibilities, but that's the truth.

In this case, as I understand it, the prisoners are left intact and physically uninjured. That is very tame and humane of us, and something I have absolutely no problem with if we are saving American lives and moving towards defeating these animals.

There is no moral equivalence, I refuse to even approach it from that perspective. Our nation's history, the lifestyle, prosperity, peace, and generosity of its citizens under our form of government...its non-imperial, non-land grabbing history...all of that, when compared to the history and life style and abject lack of freedom and tolerance of the enemy in this case is all the perspective I need.

14 posted on 12/12/2007 6:50:51 AM PST by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: UKrepublican
O.K., I'll stipulate that waterboarding is a mild form of torture. However, it is being used on Al Qaeda terrorists who are trying their damnedest to kill as many Americans as they can, both here in-country and abroad.

So really and truthfully, who cares? Especially since these terrorists are not uniformed soldiers fighting in a recognized national military force and since our troops are horrendously tortured and killed whenever they are captured by Al Qaeda operatives?

Remember what happened to these two brave American soldiers?

Al-Qaida says new leader killed kidnapped GIs

Memo to Bush: They were tortured!

Iraq: Islamist Video Of Tortured US Soldiers Condemned

15 posted on 12/12/2007 6:50:57 AM PST by Virginia Ridgerunner (“We must not forget that there is a war on and our troops are in the thick of it!” --Duncan Hunter)
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To: LottieDah

Just like people defending Saddam’s gas chambers.


16 posted on 12/12/2007 6:51:54 AM PST by wastedyears (One Marine vs. 550 consultants. Sounds like good odds to me.)
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To: UKrepublican

Little risk of harm or injury of any sort. No scaring. No maiming. None of that involved. Yet, it is torture?

It is torture only because the enemy sympathizers and their useful idiots call it so.

The real purpose behind this particular attack at our ability to conduct this war is to ensure we do not have any means at all to gain intel from enemy detainees.

After they win on this point, and they will, through argument fatigue and constant redefinition, they’ll begin on taking away our right to detain anyone in this war for any reason for any duration.

I don’t aim that at the UK specifically but at all enemy sympathizers, leftists, communists, multicultis, pomos, arabists, islamists, jihadi. Foreign or domestic.


17 posted on 12/12/2007 6:51:55 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: UKrepublican
I'm _for_ torture, when it's use is necessary to obtain critical information.

Yes, you are reading this correctly.

If it means the possibility that dozens, hundreds, thousands of lives might be saved through the use of torture to obtain information, well, we'd better use it. Or else, risk losing those lives.

I can't think of another way to express my sentiments more clearly.

You may disagree. But that's my opinion.

- John

18 posted on 12/12/2007 6:52:29 AM PST by Fishrrman
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To: Baynative

I would hope that Pelosi’s “human” wiring would override her “Democrat” and “liberal” and “Bush Derangement Syndrome” wiring.


19 posted on 12/12/2007 6:52:56 AM PST by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: AngryJawa

“...Getting audited by the IRS is torture....”

If the Fair Tax ever comes to be, the IRS would never audit you again. The IRS wouldn’t exist.


20 posted on 12/12/2007 6:54:14 AM PST by NCC-1701 (PUT AN END TO ORGANIZED CRIME. ABOLISH THE I.R.S.)
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