I will explore this topic more depth once a few more card play out between the White House and the legislative branches. This is what I have to say about torture and the missing tapes in general.
"Torture" is never OK. You can not aspire to rid your self of a monster by becoming the monster. In the end as a net, humanity is still plagued with one monster. There has never been any documented evidence released showing use of techniques deemed to be torturous have resulted in credible information.
Standing around in your underwear for a few days or not being able to read your religious text is not torture. Hell it is because of your dedication to religious text that lead you into the situation you are in now anyway. Being asked to eat prison slop is not torture. These ideas are probably not going to yield any decent advice either. An "interrogator" should never be allowed to conduct activities that he/ she himself has not personally been exposed to multiple times.
I would suspect the reason why the CIA tapes got destroyed is not because of what they did show, but because of what they didn't show. If they showed that water boarding technique actually working and causing the subject to give up useful credible information, they would have been spotlighted during a press conference. "See look how well this worked." They just lead to a man being brutalized and treated inhumanly. A charge our government levels at them. We can't be seen as being just like them.
I tell you what, given the choice of thinking I am drowning or having my head cut off, bring out the machete. One of my reoccurring nightmares is drowning.
"Torture" is never OK. You can not aspire to rid your self of a monster by becoming the monster. In the end as a net, humanity is still plagued with one monster. There has never been any documented evidence released showing use of techniques deemed to be torturous have resulted in credible information.
Standing around in your underwear for a few days or not being able to read your religious text is not torture. Hell it is because of your dedication to religious text that lead you into the situation you are in now anyway. Being asked to eat prison slop is not torture. These ideas are probably not going to yield any decent advice either. An "interrogator" should never be allowed to conduct activities that he/ she himself has not personally been exposed to multiple times.
I would suspect the reason why the CIA tapes got destroyed is not because of what they did show, but because of what they didn't show. If they showed that water boarding technique actually working and causing the subject to give up useful credible information, they would have been spotlighted during a press conference. "See look how well this worked." They just lead to a man being brutalized and treated inhumanly. A charge our government levels at them. We can't be seen as being just like them.
I tell you what, given the choice of thinking I am drowning or having my head cut off, bring out the machete. One of my reoccurring nightmares is drowning.
In a universe of love there can be no heaven which tolerates a chamber of
horrors. - John A. T. Robinson
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