Stump Lane

1. Back in 2002, the CIA recorded some interrogations.
2. These interrogations included the use of “harsh interrogation methods.”
3. The “harsh interrogation methods” included waterboarding.
4. Waterboarding has been described in two ways.
5. Waterboarding: placing a piece of cloth over the subject’s face and pouring some water on it. Simulated drowning.
6. Waterboarding: Actual drowning. The lungs actually begin to fill with water, though under “medical” supervision. Torture. Period.
7. The tapes were destroyed.
8. The tapes were destroyed by the CIA to protect its interrogators from potential prosecution.

What. Respectfully, Dear Reader. The. Fuck. —do you think was on those tapes?

Would CIA officials have feared for the prosecution of their interrogators if the tapes depicted nothing more than the placing of a piece of cloth over a subject’s face and pouring some water on it?

No. The tapes either showed the true nature of waterboarding: that it is truly a torture. Or they showed other tortures.

To call waterboarding a torture is not controversial. It is not an extreme position. John McCain will tell you this. It is only controversial— hell, only up for discussion at all among allegedly sane people —in US politics and the media who love them.

I maintain the media have done this issue a serious disservice. Read more…