Water boarding?

Question

Tying a person to a board, face up/head down inclined position, covering their face and pouring waves of water over their face.

Is that torture?

If you think it is and you only had minutes to find out information that would save hundreds if not thousands of lives, what would YOU do to get the information?

Nice non-answer Timothy.

Not a single answer

Answer 1

is it torture..yeah...

anything that forces the suspec to confess is in my book torture. i personaly have no problem with torture.

minutes? like under 30? i would not even bother. not enought time. on the other hand though, the suspect may have info on a differant attack. in which case the info must be aquired no matter what.

according to the CIA the threat of torture is more reliable than torture.

Answer 2

"If you think it is and you only had minutes to find out information that would save hundreds if not thousands of lives, what would YOU do to get the information?"

Ah, yes. The old "ticking time-bomb" hypothetical that republicans trundle out to justify their beloved torture.

The answer is that water boarding IS torture (ever seen it done?) I would not allow any American to ever water board anyone for the following four reasons:

1) The information you get from torture is inherently unreliable. A water boading victim will say anything to make it stop. That is white noise and white noise creates wild goose chases.

2) Torture justifies others to torture our own people. I will not give that justification to them, will you?

3) Torture is against international law which the US has ratified. I respect the law and obey it. Do you?

4) Torture is repugnant, reprehensible, immoral, degrading, and un-American. For God's sake, remember who and what you are. You are an American and a human being. You seem to hold those things cheap. I do not. No one who is lucky enough to say those things ever should.

Look up Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was captured by the US in 2003 and undobubtedly tortured by water boarding. At last count, he has "confessed" to Operation Bojinka, WTC I and II, the shoe bombing, Richard Pearl's murder, the Bali bombings, and a host of other things that he obviously could have had nothing to do with.

I have little doubt that if the right questions had been asked of KSM while he was being water boarded, he would have also "confessed" to the assinations of JFK and MLK, blowing up the Challenger, the sinkings of the Arizona, Lusitania, and Maine, firing the first shot at Ft. Sumter, and personally burning down the White House in 1812.

Water boarding and all torture is beneath you as an American and a human being. Is that not enough for you?

Answer 3

It was apparently invented during the Spanish Inquisiton.

In 1947, the United States prosecuted a Japanese military officer, Yukio Asano, for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II. Yukio Asano received a sentence of 15 years of hard labor.

In its 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the U.S. Department of State formally recognized "submersion of the head in water" as torture in its examination of Tunisia's poor human rights record.

In April 2006, in a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, more than 100 U.S. law professors stated unequivocally that waterboarding is torture, and is a criminal felony punishable under the U.S. federal criminal code.

Harsh interrogation techniques lead to false confessions according to some experts.

Answer 4

That is the same old crap that they always use as an excuse to allow torture. Torture is wrong. It rarely provides useful information and make the U.S. no better than those that we say are bad. For 200 years we were able to get information without using torture. George Washington told his troops that they should not torture captured British even though the British did so. During WW2 the Germans quickly surrendered to us because they knew we treated prisoners fairly. We have lost so much moral ground with this administration that it will take decades before we win that back.

Answer 5

The best way to tell if something if fair and honest is to decide if you would want that action done to yourself if you should be accused of doing something illegal.

If the Iraqi's capture an American soldier and want information from him or her, would it be okay if they under went the water board treatment? What ever we do to them is what we can be sure will be done to us. Switch the tables if you want to decide if it is fair or not.

Answer 6

Yes, it is torture.

And the "minutes to find out" scenario is right-wing bull. Getting information that is useable is a matter of sustained interrogation. The scenario you talk about hasn't ever happened--and probably never will.

Now here's the truth: Experts-including the FBI and CIA--have repeatedly told the Bush regime that torture (including waterboarding) DOES NOT WORK. The "information" obtained is not reliable. Further, there are far more effective psychological methods that work far better.

Now-given that-it is clear that Cheney , Bush, and their supporters are betraying America by resorting to torture--instead of using the best methods available to get information.

Their goal is not to protect America. It is simply sadism and brutality.

Answer 7

No

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ardon6b8Npqt1y7YKCU0wnjsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071031093557AAu0Cd5

Answer 8

Yes. It's not much different than putting a pillow over someone's head and holding it down.

Any information gleaned from doing so would be suspect... a prisoner going through this will say anything to get it to stop.

Answer 9

Well it's certainly not cutting someones head off and showing it live on the internet, but hey we do have double standards to deal with.

Answer 10

Only minutes! Oh boy, another episode of 24!

Waterboarding is torture, perhaps you will volunteer to undergo waterboarding?

If there are only minutes to go.... too late for waterboarding anyway.

I would insist on more in depth intel than some last minute torturing of someone who may be innocent.