One CIA Lawyer Could've Stopped Waterboarding Before It Started, Here's Why He Didn't

ABC News ^ | January 31, 2014 | By LEE FERRAN

[Oldeconomybuyer]

On Sept. 11, 2001, while a hijacked plane was still unaccounted for, the CIA headquarters was evacuated.

But like several officers and analysts in the building, John Rizzo, one of the Agency's top attorneys at the time, didn't move. Instead, took out a yellow legal pad and began drafting the legal justifications for what he had already predicted would be a "full-scale assault on al Qaeda [which would] employ all means necessary to prevent any further attacks on the homeland."

... But it was down to Rizzo to decide how far American interrogators could go, and his decision would affect the way America would conduct its War on Terror for years.

Rizzo said he considered the "nightmare scenario" in which another attack strikes the homeland and Zubaydah "gleefully tells his CIA handlers he knew all about it."

"In the final analysis, I could not countenance the thought of having to live with that," he writes.

[DoughtyOne]

I hear ya...

[Chode]

see post#9, 16, 29, 30 and 31, then think again...

[Impy]

It’s all a question of degree. I think arguing it’s not torture and making that the centerpiece of why we support it is a silly waste of time.

But hey I support things that everyone would agree is torture and maybe you wouldn’t and most people wouldn’t, maybe that’s why I feel differently about this.

[Chode]

OUTSTANDING answer...!!!

[Bratch]

[sickoflibs]

Water-boarding for the purpose that it was reported as used t never caused a political backlash, it was seen as effected crisis control.

The big problem was the US invasion, occupation, re-building, imposing Democracy and policing Muslim crapholes like Iraq, with no good way out.

That is what turned Americans isolationist.
Like Woodrow Wilson and WWI. Till the Japs bombed the US was isolationist after that.

[Chode]

simple explanation, it we do it to our OWN TROOPS, it's NOT torture... that would be illegal.

i don't know how much clearer i can make it

harsh words are now considered VERBAL ABUSE too, and that ain't true either... but i've been drinking, YMMV

[TigersEye]

...the claim that KSM was boarded 183 times is the only true in that, that was the number of times water was POURED on him!!! NOT how many times he was strapped to the board.

Which tells you just how astronomically far from torture waterboarding is.

[sickoflibs]

‘Torture’ def is in the eyes of the beholder I suppose.....

I am sure it is very scary or even terrifying (for those who dont know what's coming) , but its not like cutting off toes.

I had a call with drowning in a rough wave Ocean once and I recall thinking, ‘If I panic now I will die’

[Chode]

bingo... and he DID talk.

[Kickass Conservative]

If you watch the opening scenes of the Movie, the Data Center is the Building in the Background with Windows half way up. It always reminded me of an above ground Bunker.

[Impy]

Well like I said I’m not invested in it not being torture since I’m for torture.

I guess for young men undergoing vigorous military training it ain’t nothing but do it to a garden variety coach potato and I’d wager there’s a good chance they’d cry for hours afterward.

[DoughtyOne]

It has been years since I’ve seen the movie.

I just picked up a copy from iTunes. I’ll check that out in the next few days.

Thanks.

[DoughtyOne]

Can’t wait to watch it in 3D.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”<I guess for young men undergoing vigorous military training it ain’t nothing but do it to a garden variety coach potato and I’d wager there’s a good chance they’d cry for hours afterward.”

I recall these debates from 7 years ago, I am sure its much different for those who know what's coming, then those who don't know.

Wouldn't you say its more psychological torture rather than physical torture?

[Impy]

Yes absolutely, it tricks you into thinking you’re drowning when you are not actually in danger of drowning, that’s psychological.

Sleep deprivation is the one that would really bother me, I’d talk!

[sickoflibs]

RE :”Sleep deprivation is the one that would really bother me, I’d talk!”

Not me, my 50s gives me plenty of practice at that :)

Heck, I am still, awake now.

[Impy]

I wonder if any freepers “sleep-post”. ;d

[sickoflibs]

There is this one harpie Bush-bot here turned Palinista (she obvious needs a cult club) who had the habit of jumping on me late at night just when I was about to turn off the computer.

I havent heard from her lately, thankfully.

[NFHale]

These are animals that BEHEAD innocent people on film, drive airplanes into buildings full of civilians, and basically have the attitude “Convert to our belief or DIE”.

I have ZERO problem with our guys doing WHATEVER it takes to save American lives.

War is hell, ain’t it?