Waterboarding is torture

I oppose the use of waterboarding, but I admit that I have zero expertise on issues of national security.  The editors of the The Armed Forces Journal, however, are more credible and experienced, and they have made their views crystal clear in response to Rudy "every method they could think of" Giuliani and our linguistically Clintonesque Attorney General Michael Mukasey.  (HT: Sullivan)

In an interview, Giuliani was asked for his views on using “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding. He responded that in a hypothetical scenario that assumed an attack, “I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of.” Prompted again on the specific use of waterboarding, he repeated “every method they could think of.” Mukasey said he found waterboarding to be “repugnant,” but he wouldn’t answer whether it amounted to torture.

Let AFJ be crystal clear on a subject where these men are opaque: Waterboarding is a torture technique that has its history rooted in the Spanish Inquisition. In 1947, the U.S. prosecuted a Japanese military officer for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II.

Waterboarding inflicts on its victims the terror of imminent death. And as with all torture techniques, it is, therefore, an inherently flawed method for gaining reliable information. In short, it doesn’t work. That blunt truth means all U.S. leaders, present and future, should be clear on the issue.

I can't resist offering my favorite description of Giuliani from one of today's leading political theorists, Chris Rock.  Rock explained that Giuliani is great “in a crisis. But in real life Giuliani’s kinda like a pit bull. He’s great when you have a burglar, but if you don’t, he just might eat your kids.”