FOX Sells Waterboarding

'This isn't that bad.'

'As far as torture goes at least in this controlled experiment to me, this seemed like a pretty efficient mechanism to me to get someone to talk and still have them alive and healthy within minutes.'

This is how waterboarding is really done:

6. Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.

According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaeda's toughest prisoner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last between two and two-and-a-half minutes before begging to confess.

"The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law," said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch.

And now, the Bush administration wants to muzzle the prisoners who are at the receving end of this torture by fighting in court to disallow them from revealing the actual torture they've been through. Therefore, there would be no way for their lawyers to prevent evidence that what they may have confessed to under interrogation was attained through coercion.

The Republican-led congress recently gave Bush the power to define interrogation techniques while they look the other way, so we can all see where this is headed: Bush will approve interrogation methods that the public will never know about because they will be hidden under the cloak of so-called national security concerns. Even if the Democrats take over control of the house and/or the senate, they would have a battle royale with Bush to reveal what he's approved and if the Republics maintain control, they won't even bother asking.

Meanwhile, prsioners will continue to be tortured while Bush/Cheney friendly broadcasters like FOX claim torture 'isn't that bad' - ignoring the fact that their healthy reporter has not spent years detained in a CIA hellhole, treated like an animal, exhausted, hopeless and subjected to who knows what every single day. Having three masked guys pour a pot full of water over you when you know it's coming is not waterboarding. It's theater for people who agree with Dick Cheney when he says that 'dunking people in water' is a 'no brainer'.