ABC: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed lasted 2 1/2 minutes under water-boarding

[sabra]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/variety_of_inte.html

<snip>

The officers told ABC News there was a list of six progressively harsher techniques that were authorized, with the prisoner always handcuffed.

The first -- the attention grab, involving the rough shaking of a prisoner.
Second -- the attention slap, an open-handed slap to the face.
Third -- belly slap, meant to cause temporary pain, but no internal injuries.
Fourth -- long-term standing and sleep deprivation, 40 hours at least, described as the most effective technique.
Fifth -- the cold room. Prisoners left naked in cells kept in the 50s and frequently doused with cold water.

The CIA sources say the sixth, and harshest, technique was called "water boarding," in which a prisoner's face was covered with cellophane, and water is poured over it (pictured above) -- meant to trigger an unbearable gag reflex.

New rules issued by the Pentagon today prohibit water boarding, though there was no clear acknowledgement that it was permitted previously.

CIA officers told ABC News that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed lasted the longest under water boarding, two and a half minutes, before beginning to talk.

[helderheid]

1. this made my stomach go in knots.

[Solly Mack]

2. but the US doesn't torture lies Bush

I'm in tears

[merh]

3. Isn't it the CIA that has studies that prove that torture

results in fake confessions and often results in unreliable information.

Christ help us, I hate these bastards, they are evil and they do not act in my name. Not.in.my.name. :cry:

[KamaAina]

20. But fake confessions and unreliable information are what we're after!

They give us the excuse, er, reason we need to go bomb the crap out of those bastards who're sitting on top of all our oil!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[leftchick]

4. unbelievable

:puke:

[SmokingJacket]

5. Makes me ashamed to be an American.

**MY** America doesn't torture.

What happened to it??? :cry:

[leftchick]

6. what kills me is this reads like it only happened to a handful

It happened to everyone at Gitmo in addition to those rendered to overseas jails. :grr:

The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr

He was a child of jihad, a teenage soldier in bin Laden's army. Captured on the battlefield when he was only fifteen, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay for the past four years -- subjected to unspeakable abuse sanctioned by the president himself

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11128331/follow_omar_khadr_from_an_al_qaeda_childhood_to_a_gitmo_cell


<snip>

After the invasion of Afghanistan, President Bush decided, in violation of the Geneva Convention, that any adolescent apprehended by U.S. forces could be treated as an adult at age sixteen. The problem with treating teenage prisoners as adults, whatever their crimes, is that teenagers are especially Before boarding a C-130 transport to Guantanamo, Omar was dressed in an orange jumpsuit and hog-chained: shackled hand and foot, a waist chain cinching his hands to his stomach, another chain connecting the shackles on his hands to those on his feet. At both wrist and ankle, the shackles bit. The cuffs permanently scarred many prisoners on the flight, causing them to lose feeling in their limbs for several days or weeks afterward. Hooded and kneeling on the tarmac with the other prisoners, Omar waited for many hours. His knees sent intensifying pain up into his body and then went numb.

Just before he got on the plane, Omar was forced into sensory-deprivation gear that the military uses to disorient prisoners prior to interrogation. The guards pulled black thermal mittens onto Omar's hands and taped them hard at the wrists. They pulled opaque goggles over his eyes and placed soundproof earphones over his ears. They put a deodorizing mask over his mouth and nose. They bolted him, fully trussed, to a backless bench. Whichever limbs hadn't already lost sensation from the cuffs lost sensation from the high-altitude cold during the flight, which took fifteen hours. "There was points I wished to God that one of these MPs would go crazy and then shoot me," recalled one of the hundreds of detainees who have made the trip. "It was the only time in my life that I really wished for a bullet."

At Guantanamo, Omar was led, his senses still blocked, onto a bus that took the prisoners to a ferry dock. Some of the buses didn't have seats, and the prisoners usually sat cross-legged on the floor. Guards often lifted the prisoners' earphones, told them not to move, and when they moved -- helplessly, with the motion of the bus, like bowling pins -- started kicking them. The repeated blows often left detainees unable to walk for weeks.

After the ferry ride, Omar was evaluated at a base hospital. "Welcome to Israel," someone told him. Then he was locked in a steel cage eight feet long and six feet wide. Because the cage had a sink and squat-toilet and the bed was welded to the floor, the open floor space was comparable to that of a small walk-in closet. The cages had been hurriedly constructed from steel mesh and transoceanic shipping containers. Giant banana rats ran freely through the cells and across the roofs and shit everywhere: on beds, on sinks, on Korans. Prisoners were allowed only one five-minute shower each week; the cellblocks stood in a perpetual stench.

Omar's arrival at Guantanamo in October 2002 coincided with a fundamental turn in the administration's War on Terror. Within weeks of his arrival, at the authorization of President Bush, interrogators at the detention facility began using starkly inhumane techniques. Before Omar Khadr had even started to assimilate the wondrous horrors of Guantanamo Bay, his captors began to torture him....

[Tigermoose]

7. We are the great Satan.

This is horrible. WTF do we stand for? Right now I wish I could flee this bloody, gaping maw we call the United States of America.

And I am not convinced this would change under Democratic leadership.

[coalition_unwilling]

8. Torture is as American as apple pie and baseball (n/t)

[Bluebear]

9. A new world record!!!!!

I'm SO proud. :eyes:

[wakeme2008]

10. Bullshit

Waterboarding is when you put somebodies head under water... :grr:

[KurtNYC]

18. That's what I thought

strapped to a teeter-totter like board (hence the name) and dunked in water.

If it was cellophane why would they call it water boarding?

[populistdriven]

28. Actually they use cloth wrapped around your face and pour water on it

feels like you are drowning - we should do it in a park as a form of protest - invite Repukes to see how long they can stand up to it

:evilgrin:

[gratuitous]

11. Nice, they even time their tortures

Is it like on Fear Factor? Do they have Joe Rogan cheering them on during the waterboarding? Is there a big three minute clock with Khalid's face plastered on a 2½ minutes? Do they film it? Is there a studio audience?

Keep this kind of depraved shit in mind the next time a body turns up in an American uniform with unspeakable defilements perpetrated on it. And when the plaintive question is raised of why would anyone hate us so much, remind them what their tax dollars are paying for.

[OwnedByFerrets]

12. Makes me soooooooooooo

proud to be an amerikan.:sarcasm:

[AX10]

13. Bush is a fascist pig!

[Lex]

14. Real reliable information comes from someone who is tortured,

from someone who just wants the torturer to stop. Jeez.

[Marie26]

15. Why are they suddenly admitting this? nt

[Lex]

16. Must be something worse they are doing that makes this pale.

God help us.

[Bluebear]

19. Good read, Lex. nt

[glitch]

21. Could be the agreement of amnesty for Bin Laden with Pakistan.

That's gonna cause some heads to explode.

[StrictlyRockers]

17. We are the light of the world.

[Arkansas Granny]

22. If I recall correctly, there were just a few days between his arrest

and the reports that he had provided information to his interrogators. I remember thinking that they must have used some means to extract the information because I was sure he would not have given it up so quickly, otherwise.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jacobin]

24. No.

He enjoys blabbering.

He loves wars.

He would brag about it.

You wouldn't have to drag it out of him.

[hootinholler]

25. WHat about the smearing them with feces?

Which step is that one? Or Raping thier children. What step is that?

What else do the AbuGraib photos show about technique? Oh, and while we're at it where are the photos that were to be released?

-Hoot

[elehhhhna]

26. Wonder how the middle & high schoolers do. You know, timewise.

[WinkyDink]

27. Today, Bush called these "tough" methods. And he had that

pseudo-pugnacious "What're ya gonna DO about it?" sneer.

[mmonk]

29. There are things that have been done that are much worst than

on that list in regards to torture. May I suggest the book, The Case For Impeachment; The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office by Dave Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky from St. Martin's Press.