Did US Waterboarding Techniques Make An Honest Man Out Of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

[Purveyor]

Washington (BNW) —That Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he’s a hard man! He said he did this, he said he did that, he just confessing to everything old and new. You would too, if Cheney and Bush were waterboarding you for the truth. As a result, Mohammed has confessed to vast categories of worldwide plots and crimes.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who says he masterminded the September 11 attacks on the United States, told a closed military hearing at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay that he had also hatched, or helped, in 30 other conspiracies spanning the globe.

However, after being waterboarded by US so many times, this captured al Qaeda planner maybe exaggerating his real importance, just to stay above water.

Waterboarding is a form of torture, which is used to obtain information, coerce confessions, and for punishment and intimidation. Waterboarding consists of immobilizing an individual and pouring water over his face to simulate drowning, which produces a severe gag reflex, making the subject believe his death is imminent while ideally not causing permanent physical damage.

The practice garnered renewed attention and notoriety in September 2006 when reports charged that the Bush administration had authorized its use in the interrogations of U.S. War on Terrorism detainees. Though the Bush administration has never formally acknowledged its use, Vice President Dick Cheney told an interviewer that he did not believe "a dunk in water" to be a form of torture but rather a "very important tool" for use in interrogations, including that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

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http://www.blacknewsweekly.com/news367.html

[Lint Head]

1. It isn't possible.

Torture has never elicited any truth from anyone. It has been clinically proven that someone that is tortured will say anything to stop the torture. There is no evidence that torture ever stopped a war or a bomb from going off. That is a myth.
Only vigilance, investigation and spying has done so throughout history.

[MadMaddie]

2. It's a myth that this Administration has perpetuated for the last 6 years.

And because of that they are criminally responsible for any act of torture.

You are right if they would have performed the vigilance, investigation and spying that has been done so throughout history, this country might actually be safer.

[nealmhughes]

3. Just think if Khalid had moved to Chicago and met an Albanian named Belsuhi...

could have been this!

[ogsball]

4. If they would have water boarded me . . .

I would have confessed to all that stuff too. . .

Torture works people confess. Oh yea, but you don't get any real information that is useful. You might change some attitudes briefly -- read 1984.

[Laurier]

5. Ron Jeremy lookalike.

Not that there's anything wrong with that :)

Seriously, though, while I understand the torture allegations, I don't see how that figures into his admissions from way before he was even in US custody. He gave interviews to Al Jazeera months before his capture in which he admitted to his involvement in terror attacks and such. I'm just not sure that backing this guy is the right thing to do.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Another article concerning waterboarding and other forms of

"interrogation" and KSM:

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1322866