'Mancow' insists his waterboarding 'absolutely real,' says right and left both upset with him

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Chicago Tribune

Erich "Mancow" Muller, responding to a report he faked being waterboarded on Chicago's WLS-AM 890 a week earlier, said Friday that both his experience and subsequent newfound belief that the controversial interrogation technique is torture were "absolutely real."

Before Muller went on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" for the second time this week on Friday night to discuss the latest developments (above), Muller readily acknowledged in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that the waterboarding stunt was not and never meant to be an exact re-creation of how the technique is administered to detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

He also said that Chicago police, station management and others were misled ahead of time and told "we weren’t really going to do" the waterboarding "until we did"; otherwise, he said, it would not have been permitted.

WLS-AM boss Michael Fowler said Muller simply told him not to worry, and he has no doubt the experience was real for Muller, who remained shaken hours afterward.


Read more: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2009/05/mancow-insists-waterboarding-absolutely-real-says-right-and-left-both-upset-with-him.html

[Idealism]

1. That was an intense video

The guy practically instantly regressed to his childhood for a few seconds

[psychopomp]

4. Looks a bit shoddy when compared to the Hitchens video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPubUCJv58

[Ian David]

2. My guess is he INTENDED for it to be fake, but the Marine didn't play along. n/t

[lapfog_1]

9. According to the report...

The Marine in question didn't know WTF he was doing.

I wondered about it, because in the other "waterboard the reporter" videos I've seen, the cloth is always placed over the mouth, both to force it open, and, I suspect, to keep most of the water from entering. Doing it that way would seem to be safer, while still giving that mammalian reflex feeling of water going in your mouth and there isn't anything you can do about it (like close your mouth, turn your head, etc).

I imagine that it really did frighten Mancow as much as he claims it did.

[louis-t]

24. I heard "We'll go on 5,...1,2,3

...I lied" It seems Mancow now might develop the dreaded 'E' disease. Empathy anyone?

[MetaTrope]

3. The right wing noise machine will crucify him

Who knows, maybe he'll see the light eventually.

[SpiralHawk]

13. The Republicons will crucify him because they HATE the truth

That's why the Republicons of yesteryear -- operating under other names but with the same hate and fear philosophy == crucified Jesus Christ

[BarbaRosa]

5. How can you get waterboarding wrong?

You got somebody restrained, pouring water down their throat and nose. Sounds pretty basic to me.

[lapfog_1]

10. Let's see...

you aren't supposed to kill the victim (even as a torture technique, killing the source of your "information" is considered bad form).

The body should be held at a slight incline, which heightens the feeling of drowning.

There should be a cloth over the mouth to prevent the victim from closing their mouths AND to prevent most of the water from actually entering the victims throat.

Having the head at an incline below the trunk of the body makes it very hard to swallow enough water so you can "catch a breath".

No doubt Mancow was tortured. No doubt he feels that he was tortured.

And there is no doubt that he got most of the effect of being waterboarded, even if not done "properly".

[kentauros]

14. This sounds like some of my sessions at the dentist!

And even with "suction" it's still difficult to swallow with that dental dam and frame forcing your mouth open, your head down at the dentist's knees while your legs and feet are higher and all that water and saliva seeping into the back of your mouth and throat.

Have a few root canals and crowns put in and you start to wonder if dentists are also taught waterboarding...


"Is it safe?" :P

[lapfog_1]

15. Only if your head was lower than the trunk of your body...

However, Little Shop of Horrors addressed this topic quite nicely, I believe.

[kentauros]

16. The way my dentist does it

my head certainly seems lower than my trunk. I know I have to take something to clear my sinuses the day or night before and then let that suction stick dry out my mouth or I will be drowning. I've had to sit up I don't know how many times in order to swallow. She's a great dentist, but I have never liked how she likes to tilt me back so much.

I don't remember that part of Little Shop of Hoorrors. I need to watch that movie again :D

[lapfog_1]

18. Classic scenes between Bill Murray and Steve Martin

[Blue_Tires]

23. lol..the greatest scene from the greatest movie

for way too many years i've been playing this song mentally during my dentist visits!

[sasquuatch55]

20. Root canals

Just had 2 done and waterboarding INSTANTLY came to mind as I was lying there.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. I'm not upset with him

He performed a great public service - for once in his trite, meaningless life!

[provis99]

7. what a wimp.

I'll bet I could go a full SEVEN seconds before telling them anything they want.

[Diclotican]

11. provis99

provis99

To his credit, i would not have go 6 seconds before I would claim I did everything, from Killing Julius Casar to the Kennedy killins... Or if not the drowning had killed me, I guess that my Asma attack had killed me before 20 minutes....

Diclotican

[dorkulon]

8. Would have been better if they made him confess to being the 20th hijacker. /nt

[Optical.Catalyst]

12. Advice to Mancow:

Until you can convincingly retract your statement that waterboarding is torture, stay off of small airplanes

[scipan]

17. I don't think they hold the nose of prisoners

so the water can't go down. Also, I'm not sure but I think the cloth is supposed to be over the mouth as well as the nose.

He had waterboarding lite.

[rasputin1952]

19. I am probably the least likely to defend

toxic to the nth degree, however, after seeing the video, and both of his appearances on Countdown, there is no doubt in my mind that he initially intended to disprove the "waterboarding=torture" reality, and state once and for all, by way of self test, that there was nothing to it. He found out first hand that waterboarding is torture, and has been very vocal in his finding.

Naturally, the "version" he went through was different from what others have suffered through, but the results were the same: a feeling of drowning, imminent death and uncontrollable fear. That is torture.

As for Mr. Muller, while I detest the man, I will give credit where credit is due, he exposed the fact that waterboarding is indeed torture. He has not backed down nor has he altered his take on this, and for that alone, I have to muster up respect for the man.

edit: dumb typo...:blush:

[mbperrin]

21. You said it well. Let's give some credit for a change of mind, so

rare these days on anything, it seems.

[Iliyah]

22. It's only

the right that is upset. He's including the left to counter the criticism. You are right, when it comes to the truth the right is always in denial.

[Posteritatis]

28. Did you see the initial threads here?

People were condemning him all over the place during it, saying it didn't really count because he wasn't waterboarded enough, that he needs to do it dozens of times before he's allowed to change his mind on it, etc. People around here were furious at him. It was all sorts of disgusting.

[booley]

25. This leftie is not upset at him.

I listened to him when he was still In KC (apparently he went to the same college as me) and I thought he was a con idiot then.

But he did what I have yet to see a single other con do. He went out and verified what he claimed and changed his mind when the facts did not agree with him. I almost never see that with other cons even when they aren't being tortured. Especially not from a public personality.

So he gets Kudos from me. He is among the few to actually cross the (very low ) bar I have set for cons.

[bobburgster]

26. Has to be neo-cons calling it fake.

They'll do and say anything to discredit all negativity about what their people do.

[Posteritatis]

27. A lot of people here say it was too

It's kind of ridiculous IMHO; even if the guy encountered a (pun minimally intended) watered-down version of it, he still walked away convinced it was a terrible thing. That's fair enough to me.

[Q3JR4]

29. For any republican out there doubting Muller's

veracity I invite you to be waterboarded on live television. I'll even volunteer to tie you down and hold the water.

What (sound of crickets) no takers?

Q3JR4.

[Doctor_J]

30. If you watched him on Countdown, he said "The left is upset with me...because they always are"

no one on the left is upset with his waterboarding, only with the fact that he's still a right-wing hack even after discovering that his heroes Bush and Cheney are war criminals.

[Doctor_J]

31. It is still "fake", in that he knew he could tap out at any time

I always thought that Hannity, after offering to be waterboarded, should have been scooped up off the street w/o notice, and really waterboarded - not knowing when it would end.