Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Would you like that Khmer Rouge or Spanish style?

No, that is not a food question.

In an opinion piece in today’s USA Today, GWU Law Professor Jonathan Turley discusses the recent testimony of Steven Bradbury, the acting chief of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, on the administration’s use of waterboarding. Turley points out that the testimony before Congress contained details of exactly what kind of waterboarding our country engages in:
Bradbury helpfully explained that the administration did not adopt the Inquisition technique of forcing the suspect to swallow large amounts of water and stomping on his stomach.

As Bradbury's testimony and various reports indicate, the Bush administration opted for the standard variation of the tortura del agua of putting a cloth or a piece of plastic over the face of the victim while pouring water over his face. It achieves the same sensation of drowning and the inability to breathe. This technique was used by governments such as Cambodia's Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot.

How charming that the torture being carried out in the name of our country uses so modern a method. And by "charming" I mean makes-you-want-to-throw-up.

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