BBC on Waterboarding..

[Stuart G]

The accompanying article by BBC..an add on to the investigation by the Justice Department into the destruction of CIA tapes. actually embarrasses me. In discussing this, BBC reporters say. "Pres Bush excluded the CIA...................." see highlighted area...
I am an American, I did not exclude the CIA............................also note:

Why does the U. S. use torture?.............it too is highlighted. (highlighting is mine)


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7138144.stm


Last Updated: Tuesday, 11 December 2007, 14:28 GMT

Water-boarding as torture - or not
By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent, BBC News website

Protest showing water-boarding technique
Protest against water-boarding in Washington

The latest revelations about CIA interrogations have put the advocates of coercive techniques onto the defensive.

Q&A: Water-boarding
A former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, has acknowledged that a technique known as water-boarding was used to interrogate an al-Qaeda prisoner.
Arguments have raged as to whether this technique amounts to torture and should be banned.
Protest showing water-boarding technique
Protest against water-boarding in Washington
What is water-boarding?
Water-boarding involves a prisoner being stretched on his back or hung upside down, having a cloth pushed into his mouth and/or plastic film placed over his face and having water poured onto his face. He gags almost immediately.
Does it come under a technical definition of torture?
Human rights groups and many governments say that it does. The United States does not agree.
Torture is defined by the 1949 UN Convention against Torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person..." in order to get information.
The US is signed up to the Convention. The eighth amendment to the US Constitution banning "cruel and unusual punishment" is also held to prohibit torture.
The US legal code defines torture as an action "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering".

So why has the US used water-boarding?
Because it does not classify water-boarding as torture and regards it an effective method in a small number of cases.
It makes a distinction between "torture", which it accepts is banned by US and international law, and so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques".


These include not only water-boarding but sleep deprivation, subjection to cold and long periods of standing, and some slapping.
Isn't the US military banned from using water-boarding?
Yes. In 2006 a new army manual on collecting intelligence banned torture and degrading treatment, including water-boarding, forced nakedness, hooding and sexual humiliation.
The manual's publication followed the scandals at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the passing of the Detainee Treatment Act in 2005, which prohibited the "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of detainees.
So why is the CIA allowed to use it?

President Bush excluded the CIA from the restrictions imposed on the military. He did so in an executive order in July 2007, which sought to define the American commitment to the Geneva Conventions' Common Article 3 prohibition on cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment and torture.


The order declared that a CIA "programme of detention and interrogation" complied with the Geneva Conventions.
The order listed interrogation methods and practices that are not allowed. These range all the way from murder and rape to acts of humiliation.
The banned methods did not, however, include the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. In a separate memorandum, President Bush drew up a list of allowed methods, but these have not been made public.
Is water-boarding effective?
According to John Kiriakou, al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah "broke" within half a minute. Abu Zubaydah said later that he had made things up to satisfy his interrogators.
The arguments about the efficacy of water-boarding reflect all arguments about similar methods. Do they produce information or lies? Can the information be obtained by other means? And are they counter-productive?
Is water-boarding still used?
According to CIA officials, it has been used three times since 2001 but not since 2003. The CIA Director General Mike Hayden, who took over in May 2006, indicated that he had taken the technique off a list of approved methods.
Are there any moves in the US to ban it by law?
Yes. The US House of Representatives passed a bill in December 2007 that would ban the CIA from using water-boarding, mock executions and other harsh interrogation methods. The bill has to go before the Senate and could be vetoed by President Bush.
The proposed legislation would require the CIA to follow the rules in the Army Field Manual. It seeks to remove the ambiguity that surrounds the use of water-boarding.
The new US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said during his Senate confirmation hearing that water-boarding was "repugnant to me" and that he would institute a review.

[yourout]

1. I suspect Waterboarding was the mildest form of torture they used.

[indepat]

2. "Why does the U.S. use torture?" Why? Because high-up person(s) must like it, that's why

[Stuart G]

3. indapat...How right you are...

And how sad it is..to even think that higher up..likes the idea of torture......:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: