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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:54 pm Post subject: Christopher Hitchens tries Water Boarding |
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/02/humanrights.usa
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Late last year, the writer, polemicist and fierce proponent of the US-led invasion of Iraq Christopher Hitchens attempted, in a piece for the online magazine Slate, to draw a distinction between what he called techniques of "extreme interrogation" and "outright torture".
From this, his foes inferred that since it was Hitchens' belief that America did not stoop to the latter, the practice of waterboarding - known to be perpetrated by US forces against certain "high-value clients" in Iraq and elsewhere - must fall under the former heading.
Enraged by what they saw as an exercise in elegant but offensive sophistry, some of the writer's critics suggested that Hitchens give waterboarding (which may sound like some kind of fun aquatic pastime, but is probably best summarised as enforced partial drowning) a whirl, just to see what it was like. Did the experience feel like torture?
And amazingly, he has done just that.
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So what did it feel like? Hitchens recounts how he was lashed tightly to a sloping board, then, "on top of the hood, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose ... I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and - as you might expect - inhale in turn."
That, he says, "brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, flooded more with sheer panic than with water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal" and felt the "unbelievable relief" of being pulled upright.
The "official lie" about waterboarding, Hitchens says, is that it "simulates the feeling of drowning". In fact, "you are drowning - or rather, being drowned".
He rehearses the intellectual arguments, both for ("It's nothing compared to what they do to us") and against ("It opens a door that can't be closed"). But the Hitch's thoroughly empirical conclusion is simple. As Vanity Fair's title puts it: "Believe me, it's torture."
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And I would love to see Cheney and Rumsfield have a little go at it. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:16 pm Post subject: |
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pwnt |
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The Bobster
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:06 am Post subject: Re: Christopher Hitchens tries Water Boarding |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| And I would love to see Cheney and Rumsfield have a little go at it. |
There are one or two members of these forums that I have to restrain myself fro calling torture-mongers - I settle for "torture apologists" - and I'd love to see them give it a try, too.
I heard a rumor that the dudes they do this to in Iraq and Afganistan don't get to have a "pre-arranged signal" to tell people to stop ... but, hey, that can't be true, right?
Because if it were true, then the victims this is inflicted on experience quite a bit worse than what Mr Hitchens described as torture. |
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:52 am Post subject: ... |
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| The only sad part of this is that it's taken this long for someone to actually give it a go. I really don't like Hitchens, but you gotta admire him for this. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:53 am Post subject: Re: ... |
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| Nowhere Man wrote: |
| The only sad part of this is that it's taken this long for someone to actually give it a go. I really don't like Hitchens, but you gotta admire him for this. |
Yes, on both counts. |
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Bigfeet
Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:45 am Post subject: |
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He didn't last very long did he?  |
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postfundie
Joined: 28 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:48 am Post subject: |
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| good for Hitchens. Supports the Kurds and is willing to go through waterboarding |
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hugekebab
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:38 am Post subject: |
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| postfundie wrote: |
| good for Hitchens. Supports the Kurds and is willing to go through waterboarding |
Saw that earlier on you tube (just deleted my account however; see my new thread on this issue)
You could tell it was intense, was terrifying even to watch someone take it upon themselves. |
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hugekebab
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:38 am Post subject: |
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| Bigfeet wrote: |
| He didn't last very long did he? |
Neither would you mate!  |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:40 am Post subject: Re: ... |
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| Nowhere Man wrote: |
| The only sad part of this is that it's taken this long for someone to actually give it a go |
He isn't the first journo from the US to try it. A year or two back another one did. For CNN or MSNBC I think. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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daskalos
Joined: 19 May 2006
Location: The Road to Ithaca
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:54 pm Post subject: |
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| No, he didn't last long, did he? Let's hope to god he doesn't have any state secrets ... |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:32 pm Post subject: |
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| I wonder what would have happened if they had changed the codeword from 'Red' to 'There is a God!' |
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manlyboy
Joined: 01 Aug 2004
Location: Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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| They should've poured scotch whiskey instead. Old Hitch would never have gotten off that board. |
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