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Comments

• [1] michael winslow from INWOOD March 10, 2008 - 09:58AM

  The torture which took place in Abu Grab, Guantanamo, through out Iraq and all over Afghanistan was authorized and encouraged from Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeld.

  A few bad apples were not responsible. In more stances than not soldiers follow orders. In the case of Abu Grab no officers were held responsible.

  When the US Attorney General Michael Mukasey doesn't know if water boarding is torture or if it took place in the last 8 years the US has real problems with human rights. Then Mukasey encourages law makers to pass a law saying going forward water boarding is illegal and he'll enforce this law. Is this a joke?

  We can't torture a confession out of a suspect then turn around and say we're now going to give him a fair trial.

  
  
• [2] Lloyd from Manhattan March 10, 2008 - 01:35PM

  In Caryl Churchill's "Drunk Enough to Say I Love You", currently at the Public Theater, the Brit who submits to the dominant American (a metaphor for the current "special relationship" between the UK and the US) is named Guy. Is it an allusion to Guy Fawkes, the Catholic rebel? Perhaps Churchill is alluding to the fact that, after his arrest, Guy Fawkes capitulated only after King James gave this order:

  "The gentler tortours are to be first used unto him, et sic per gradus ad maiora tenditur [and thus by steps extended to greater ones], and so God speed your goode worke."

  In 1605, torture was contrary to English common law unless authorized by the King. Sound familiar?

  
  
• [3] Chris March 10, 2008 - 01:47PM

  I doubt US gov was looking for info from Syrian torturers. They just wanted to send suspected terrorists somewhere where they might be locked away/tortured, hopefully forever, to limit the threat they posed.

  
  
• [4] Chris March 10, 2008 - 01:49PM

  Water boarding typically doesn't hurt, it just makes you think you're drowning. So is scaring someone to death torture?

  
  
• [5] Glenn from Manhattan March 10, 2008 - 01:50PM

  You interviewed Phillip Zimbardo about how students became torturers. Can you tie this into that discussion?

  Torture is like homelessness, people don't really want to know about it because they don't want to imagine the worst happening to them.

  
  
• [6] Amy from Manhattan March 10, 2008 - 01:55PM

  1. I second Glenn's suggestion.

  2. On how tortured is portrayed in the movies & on TV, I don't watch "24," but I heard a discussion on WNYC in which 1 of the participants said the show did have an instance where it didn't work...because the person being tortured held out through even the worst of it. What I'd like them to show is having self-righteous Jack inflict horrible pain on someone & find out later that he had the wrong person & tortured someone innocent, who was framed by the real bad guys.

  
  
• [7] Chris March 10, 2008 - 01:56PM

  Blasting Rock music was actually used by US army to prevent journalists from using listening devices to eavesdrop on conversations between Noriega and negotiators.

  
  
• [8] Tomaz from Brooklyn March 10, 2008 - 01:58PM

  very surprised by LL's insensitive comments about torture. Nothing funny about loud noise torture.

  
  
• [9] eva from spiritually? Newark March 10, 2008 - 02:08PM

  Chris (#4), I was under the impression from listening to the Navy Seal who had undergone waterboarding training that waterboarding "doesn't SIMULATE drowning; it IS drowning."

  And yes, you can frighten someone to death, by inducing a cardiac event. (This came up in 2004 when medical researchers realized not only that they were failing to detect heart attacks in women, but that those events often have different triggers, often fear or surprise.)

  The combination of physiological drowning during waterboarding and fear of the person imposing the waterboarding, would presumably be enough to induce either a cardiac event, or significant cardiac and pulmonary tissue damage. And much would depend on the "skill" of the torturer. But maybe we can get a doctor to comment here? (Hopefully a doctor who has read thoroughly about the waterboarding process.)

  
  
• [10] eva from spiritually? Newark March 10, 2008 - 02:32PM

  Malcolm Nance is the name of the former US Navy instructor who testified before the US congress on waterboarding. Sorry the source is wikipedia, but the Times website is slow (because of the breaking story on Spitzer?)

  Nance "is notable for testifying before the United States Congress about the use of "extended interrogation techniques".[1][2] He told the House Judiciary Committee that:

  1) "Waterboarding is torture, period."

  2) "I believe that we must reject the use of the waterboard for prisoners and captives and cleanse this stain from our national honor."