And so it went Friday morning when WLS radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller decided to subject himself to the controversial practice of waterboarding live on his show . “I want to find out if it’s torture,” Mancow told his listeners Friday morning, adding that he hoped his on-air test would help prove that waterboarding did not, in fact, constitute torture. Listeners had the chance to decide whether Mancow himself or his co-host, Chicago radio personality Pat Cassidy, would undergo the interrogation method during the broadcast. The voters ultimately decided Mancow would be the one donning the soaked towel and shackles, and at about 8:40 a.m., he entered a small storage room next to his studio that was compared to a “dungeon” by Cassidy.
“The average person can take this for 14 seconds,” Marine Sergeant Clay South answered, adding, “He’s going to wiggle, he’s going to scream, he’s going to wish he never did this.” With a Chicago Fire Department paramedic on hand, Mancow was placed on a 7-foot long table, his legs were elevated, and his feet were tied up.
Turns out the stunt wasn’t so funny. Witnesses said Muller thrashed on the table, and even instantly threw the toy cow he was holding as his emergency tool to signify when he wanted the experiment to stop. He only lasted 6 or 7 seconds…..
“It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,”Mancow said, likening it to a time when he nearly drowned as a child. “It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back…It was instantaneous…and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture.”“I wanted to prove it wasn’t torture,” Mancow said. “They cut off our heads, we put water on their face…I got voted to do this but I really thought ‘I’m going to laugh this off.’ ” Last year, Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens endured the same experiment — and came to a similar conclusion. The conservative writer said he found the treatment terrifying, and was haunted by it for months afterward.
Hey, at least he had the guts to try. Sean, Rush, Dick… we’re waiting.
#63, RBG,
Quoting an opinion piece from a second hand source does not qualify as as a reputable citation or even an excuse. It has come to the public’s attention that most of the information was gleaned before the torture commenced. PLUS, none of these people had the codes to that atomic bomb.
But our “civilized” society seems to feel this is an ok activity in spite of the extreme duress such events produce.
They do? I don’t know where you live, but in all the places and societies I’ve ever visited, this kind of activity is extremely frowned upon to the point of being illegal. People can and do go to jail for that and similar activities.
#64
What about sleep deprivation? What about loud noise? What about yelling at the person? Where is the break point? We agree that waterboarding is torture and that hitting someone with soft pillows is not, where is the line of demarcation? Is confining someone against their will torture?
RE: Telling/lying
This is what was said in #53:
> convince
> them they or their loved ones are about
> to suffer grievous bodily harm or death
> if they don’t tell you something,
So, “convincing” someone even if no one is physically harmed is torture? Police do it all the time to criminals without laying a hand on them. There are many ways to convince people that their loved ones will be harmed if they do not cooperate and they do not involve actual physical harm. Putting on a performance that convinces someone that bad things will happen if they do not cooperate is not torture.
Christopher Hitchens is a conservative writer?
#66 Thomas
a) Exactly what word or words in “at the point of waterboarding” didn’t you understand? Perhaps it was the combination of words that caused you problems? Maybe we need to order you an imagination from the brain catalog?
b) You think the U.S. government was “putting on a performance” about the Gitmo prisoner’s loved ones? This wasn’t a police/criminal interrogation, now was it? Sometimes you have to actually do things to convince people.
I guess that never occurred to you? I mean, they were torturing them at the time and there’s lots of soldiers in Afghanistan where those loved ones live.
Sheesh!
#68
Frankly you are skirting the issue. There are many types of torture. We agree that waterboarding is torture. However, claiming waterboarding to be torture draws an ugly grey line in the legal definition since it is non-lethal and does not cause physical damage.
You have no evidence that anything was actually done to the loved ones of people they captured on the battlefield in order to blackmail people. There are many ways to convince people that harm will come to them without actually harming them. By the way, many of the people they captured were not Afghani nor Iraqi. They were Sudanese, Iranian, Saudi etc. The whole problem with the illegal combatants is that they are people not fighting for a country nor to protect their own country.
#69 Thomas
a) What? I don’t get it.
b) What? I don’t get it.
Sorry, my fault. I must be particularly stupid today.
Every super power has had it’s boogy woogy man to scare the people with so they can supress the same people they are trying to control.
Romans had the christians, USA used to have the commies but since they went belly up they had to come up with “terrorists”.
Remember back in the 50’s how they had the freedom to be in any political party except the Communist one? They are coming for YOU, let us throw your neighbour in jail for no reason so you are protected. (BTW We said the same thing about you to him)
History repeats itself cause your pathetic education system does not teach why events happened just the dates. Good luck on that ride down the gurgler.