CIA Bans Waterboarding in Terror Interrogations

Next to be banned, yelling.

Good news for terrorists. Bad news for the security of America.

Does that include “black site” prisons?

When another 3000 Americans POW’s are tortured by their captors I hope the weak stomached politicians will….
Enjoy.

“And in the future, all terrorists are to be treated with the utmost respect, and served tea during questioning.”
– from the new CIA training manual

After he was subjected to waterboarding, KSM also took responsibility for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Did Alexis Debat consult on this story, too. Why do you go with these half-baked stories when the CIA refused to comment on it?

About time. The use of waterboarding, while doubtless effective and less “disturbing to the conscience” than other torture techniques, has alienated much of the civilized world. It has also made rather a mockery of George Bush’s speeches about “freedom and democracy” – a pretty foolish thing to do during a war that is mostly about ideas and winning hearts and minds. And apparently it was used just “five times”. Glad to hear that, but five terrorists broken versus the good name of the United States sullied for a generation hardly seems like a very good deal.
By the way, I am a Canadian. I support the war in Iraq and think that in General Petraeus you may have finally found the guy who can win it. Petraeus, like John McCain and most other patriots, is against torture. Leave torture to Castro, Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-Il. America should stand for decency and human rights.

You must be joking. Do you really think we are going to fall for this.
Please!
You can’t fool ALL the people ALL the time Brian!
They are just outsourcing this to private contractors.

Lets hope Brian’s scoop on this story didn’t come from Alexis Debat.

The United States can survive terrorists and terror attacks.
The United States cannot survive the introduction of torture into our culture.
JT

CIA no longer water what?Hey,Langley where’s the Gimp?Oops!I’m dreadfully sorry I outed yet another state secret.This is America.The country where people have no recourse to justice because they can’t prove that the “invisible government”-the 1%Doctrine that replaced 54/12-is behind the hounding and degradation that they have to endure because it serves a greater good:Hill and Bill’s 3rd term and the Bush dynasty’s royal ambitions.Why don’t you ask your friends at the Hoover building why they don’t follow through when people file complaints,knowing who is really behind some of the stunts you pull.What is Johnny Chung up to these days?How is Norman Hsu doing?There are people at Langley that know very well why this is being posted.Maybe some day Brian Ross will be knocking at your HQ?

The willingness of some to justify the use of government sponsored illegal torture on anyone is disappointing.
Should we not expect our leaders to honor the prisoner of war standards defined by the Geneva Convention, which we helped draft…and of which other nations can and have been held accountable for in international court?
As a nation of the people, should we not insist our government follow a couse of due process and set limits on government sponsored torture?
I believe the opinion of some who favor “preemptive aggression” and “torturing of captives” is a dangerous precept of justice within the free society we cherish.

It’s all very well to toss civilised behaviour aside in the name of security, but I wonder how many supporters of waterboarding torture would keep supporting it if the Iraqi resistance or the Taliban captured US troops and sent videos of them being waterboarded to death to Al Jazeera or even to the White House? You think it’s OK to torture people like this, but let’s see how many of you could sit back and watch your own people being waterboarded, locked in rooms and alternately frozen and roasted, deprived of sleep for weeks on end and all those other lovely games that the Americans like to play in contravention of the Geneva Conventions and all the other treaties they deliberately break. Like everything the Americans do, this will come back to bite them. If the USA uses torture, then it can be expected that its own people will be tortured in the same way by its enemies. When the USA starts receiving the bodies of its own soldiers drowned by waterboarding, it will not have a leg to stand on in the way of complaint.

Does this ban include the out of country places we end up sending the terrorist suspects as well? … right… I didn’t think so…

Yep, its true, Cheney is on record publicly supporting this tactic … a favorite method of those old-fashioned, Christian, freedom loving people, the Gestapo.

I don’t believe Hayden. It is his business to lie when it satisfies the ends.
As to the comment about Bush being called stupid, yet being credited for pulling off 911…
Bush has limited mental capacity. Some say it is a result of fetal alcohol syndrome.
Dick Cheney is the evil brain who likely was directly involved in perpetrating 911. Bush was just brought along for the ride, and told exactly what to say. Bush is the front man. Cheney is the wizard of evil.
They should both be impeached and prosecuted for their crimes.

Torture is torture and unnecessary in the modern world the intelligent nations should have learned that the information gotten is unreliable or contaminated and the come backs are with out question beyond the risks. There are more sophisticated methods by trained individuals that lead to truth gathering information over a short period of time, but that depends on the intelligent nation theory, and the ability to verity facts.

Its better to ban it, then go ahead and do it. It will make it more difficult for them to beat it if they do not think its coming.

We not only need to torture these terrorists, we need to hang them up or shoot them in the head for the world to see what we do to people that kill Americans. Only then will they realize that we mean business.

They don’t even describe waterboarding honestly. If it’s just about “pouring” water over someone’s head, where does the board come in? They STRAP someone to a board and tip them over backwards in a tub of water. So maybe they don’t pour water over someone’s head any more…that’s not even “Waterboarding”.
And Ed, it DOESN”T WORK. People lie to get you to stop. It’s revenge, and not
effective at all.

Look, people, get real. We use torture because torture works. I know it works because I saw it work on 24.

Then we’ve got to allow for the fact that we will NOT know every attack that is coming our way…and that people are going to die because of it. We’re fighting a war by playing by some set of rules against an enemy that doesn’t go by any rules. It is obviously easier and cheaper to avoid having to house alQaeda at Gitmo or anywhere else…and we won’t listen to anybody’s phone conversations, etc. – We just have to then deal with attacks happening once in a while and get over it. If that’s ok with everybody, then I’m all for it as well.

What asses you republicans are. The U.S. is a country that has taken pride in our integrity and decency. With Bush and Cheney everything has been thrown out and we are supposed to be the ruthless thugs and torturers. That is not what most of us want from our leaders. You people should think about how much you would like to be water boarded and tortured and then be found to be innocent. Fools are fools are fools.

“CIA Bans Water-Boarding in Terror Interrogations”
This is IMPOSSIBLE!!! How could the CIA ban water-boarding when the CIA wasn’t using water-boarding? This must be a commie leftist liberal Demon-o-crat fake story to give comfort to the enemy.

im a proud scumbag!!!!!!!!!!! i support torture if its going to save innocent lives and catch the bad guys.

They should have Waterboarded Sandy Berger to find out the REAL Story.

Geez look at all the whiny little crybabies that crawled out from under their rocks for this one.
Waterboarding is torture? Since when?
Before you start whining about torture show me someone with their ears cut off, their eyes put out, their fingernails ripped out. Show me someone who has had the skin slowly peeled off of their limbs. Show me someone who has had their joints crushed. Their fingers burned off with a blowtorch. Show me someone who has had the flesh boiled off of their feet. Someone who has been scourged. Someone who has been coated with honey and left for the bugs to eat. Show me anything that involves destuction of the body and results in agonizing pain.
Do NOT show me some terrorist who was made to think he was drowning for a minute and a half and who broke down and spilled his pathetic little guts and attempt to tell me that he was tortured.
Because then you lose all credibility.

America tortures people, that is a surprise. I thought America usually used proxy states to do their work for them. You know Egypt Uzbekistan Poland Czech Republic.
However by admitting everything after being tortured Sheikh Khali mohammed has called into question the trial of at least one alleged terrorist who said he chopped off Pearls head.
How many terrorists are running around because those who were tortured hve taken the rap?

Finally a move in the right direction. Historically the use of torture has never been shown to have provided any useful information. As a former member of the intel community I would agree. It results in poor information, misinformation, and just plain bogus info. In the 1980′s our proxy forces in Central America used it often and I never saw anything good come out of it other than increased hatred towards the U.S. Torture creates more terrorists and insurgents. It is a bad idea. The people who are posting all the crap about weakening our intel have never been in the Intel community and have never seen the real result of torture. All a bunch of arm-chair warriors.

The real torture is hearing these armchair tough guys defending it. I’ll be most of them have trouble killing a spider that is scaring their daughter. Losers. Granted, if there was any credence to the idea that torture actually worked, there might at least be an intellectual argument about it. But it’s more an issue of self-righteous weaklings wanted to feel important and dominant, when in fact, they are probably ineffective, boring, lockstep suburban geeks.

I don’t understand the comments of the first two posters here – Ed and travis – and those like them, who seem to be operating purely on a primitive emotional level. It used to be that America was trying to set a better standard for the world, a benchmark for goodness and respect for human dignity that the world would look to. These posters are on the side of the terrorists when they advocate stooping to the level of the terrorists in our tactics. By the way, KSM’s confessions are – if true, which many are not – an exception to the rule. Most career interrogators concur that torture lessens the reliability of confessions, because people say what they want you to hear, rather than what is true. We should be better and smarter than that. We don’t need to stoop to the level of the terrorists to win.

Here’s what I want to know from FindLiberty and other Ron Paul advocates. When he does not get the nomination, which he won’t because the rest of the Republican Party and their followers are INSANE and DANGEROUS … will you hold your nose and vote for Hillary like we Kucinich, Dodd or Edwards Democrats will? Or will you stay home, or what? I really believe that thinking people on both sides of the aisle must admit we need a major cleanup of a government out of control and a restoring of habeus corpus, etc. At least a change of party means a certain sweeping out of entrenched corruption. Your thoughts?

Wow, there are a lot of liberal nut jobs posting.
Torture?
Place underwear on someone’s head or pour water on them, it is not torture.
Let’s not forget they are terrorists. I think the liberals need to learn what torture is. If pouring water on terrorists head saves 1 American life it’s worth it.

As an American; I would rather die, from a terrorist attack as a free man, rather than live in a state of fear and loss of my freedom. live free or die as the saying goes is all American. allowing rendition or water boarding is a threat to my consitution and that I can NEVER allow. So if you think The the bush admistration is on que, then you too; are hoplessly, lost in the Meaning of AMERICA

But if we don’t violate the Geneva Conventions and torture people we think might be terrorists, then how can we protect our freedoms.

In a “ticking bomb” scenario it is extremely irresponsible & childish not to use a very effective interrogation tool like waterboarding in he hands interrogation experts. One can see this childishness in Sen. McCain who argues against torture like a ten year old saying that it would encourage our enemies to use it on us – as if our enemies don’t already mutilate & kill for information without hesitation. Some people cannot endure to leave childhood!

Why is it that every time an article about subjects such as “waterboarding” which does not harm the subject in any way, and is very effective, all the KOOKs come out in droves?
Apparently, few of those making comments read the other article on ABCNews about “waterboarding” which contains the following:
“Then [After waterboarding for two minutes] he [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 operation ]started talking, and he never stopped,” this former officer said. KSM was never water-boarded again, and in hours and hours of conversation with his interrogators, often over a cup of tea, he poured out his soul and the murderous deeds he committed.
Well it worked, so lets stop it – that may make sense to you KOOKs but my grandchildren mean more to me than the comfort of some Islamic terrorist bent on klling them.

Continue eviscerating our defense agencies, and you will get what you deserve. Jimmy the peanut farmer did it and now asks “How come the CIA did not stop 9/11?” Because you cut their budget, humiliated their best people, and allowed churchladies define their procedures. Duh!

You liberals are bunch of fools! You obviously don’t even know the definition of torture. Putting underwear on a scumbag islamo-facsists head is not torture. Piling three naked terrorists in a pyramid is not torture. Getting someone a little wet is not torture. Torture, my misguided liberal friends is gouging someone’s eyes out, cutting there hands off and then beheading them while they are still alive, that is tortue. All of those things is what the islamo-facsists use. You liberals need to grow some backbone for crying out loud!

If you waterboard Karl Rove long enough, he will admit to killing John Kennedy. What does that have to do with getting to the truth?

This is in response to Dennis’s comment:
“…Before you start whining about torture show me someone with their ears
cut off, their eyes put out, their fingernails ripped out. Show me someone
who has had the skin slowly peeled off of their limbs. Show me someone who
has had their joints crushed. Their fingers burned off with a blowtorch.
Show me someone who has had the flesh boiled off of their feet. Someone
who has been scourged. Someone who has been coated with honey and left for
the bugs to eat. Show me anything that involves destuction of the body and
results in agonizing pain.
Do NOT show me some terrorist who was made to think he was drowning for a
minute and a half and who broke down and spilled his pathetic little guts
and attempt to tell me that he was tortured….”
Torture is all about giving a person more pain than *that person* can
take. Pain is in our heads. It is in the way our central nervous systems
(CNS) respond to stimuli; and everyone is different. It matters not
whether I rip a subject’s foot off or simply touch him with a feather if
both give him, the individual I’m trying to torture, unbearable pain.
There are people who can stick knives in their arms without flinching; for
these people, a knife in the arm is *not* torture, though it may
permanently damage the nerves in their arm. But for others this is
torture. Likewise, the mind is very powerful, and can torture a person
even when the body is not in risk of any permanent damage. Some people are
deathly afraid of high places (acrophobia); simply making them ride in an
airplane is torture to them. Do not think their pain is any less real than
someone who gets stabbed in the arm; it is absolutely as real and often
greater in intensity and duration.
And who said anything about a minute and a half of water-boarding? Did the
government say at some point that they were only using water-boarding for
1’30″ periods or less? I don’t believe it. That wouldn’t be very
“effective” now, would it? To be effective they must torture until the
person “confesses” or is on the verge of death or permanent body damage.
The idea behind torture is to give someone more pain than they can handle,
and not a drop less. Torture has nothing to do with permanent body damage;
torture may be inflicted via the body but its goal is pain, and pain is in
the mind. And the trouble with using a torture technique that inflicts
permanent body damage is that you can only do it *once*; once used, you
can’t permanently damage the same part of the body in the same way again,
can you? An arm once cut off is cut off; you cannot cut it off again–at
least, not with the same level of resultant pain. (You could reattach it
and then cut if off, but it’s going to come off rather quickly, and the
nerves won’t be as well attached or numerous so there won’t be as much
pain, and so on…) In fact, it is the torture techniques that do *not*
seriously damage the body that are the most effective at delivering pain
because the body remains healthy enough to supply the brain and CNS with
enough oxygen, blood and nutrients it needs to go right on torturing the
mind of the individual. Once these resources drop to low-enough levels (as
they can for serious, permanent injuries) the subject begins to lose
consciousness. Ask yourself a question: Can you torture an *unconscious*
person? The answer is No.

yeah Iam scared We have Terrorist’s here, Look at Black Water, You bet I am in Fear I fear this Country is having a hart attack and letting it self go. Yes, we are not the America we once were were nothing more than a bunch of hot headed Hill billies like Bin-Ladin.

So you mean if I don’t Keep the Higher moral ground I am forgetting about the Victums of 9/11, So if I don/t abuse Humans I am forgetting about the victums
If I decide to follow Human rights I am insulting the victums. Is that what you mean. What I here is America is not above the Terrorist it should stoop down low and become equal to a terrorist. Hmm sounds good to Me If dont believe in the Meaning of America.

As republicans fail and cling to their zero talking points that are ladled out to them by HUSH BIMBO and BILE OHREALLY, most people need to remember the eternal truth…do not argue with idiots as they bring you down to their level and then they beat you with experience. Most of my republican friends have pursed lips and furtive glances to guide their way currently and a plethora of doting MAINSCREAM media to pump up their positions so as not to hurt their frailties.

The rule for a christian is do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There is a difference between interrogating and torturing.
You notice John McCane is at the forfront of this. He was a prisoner.
What level of interrogation we use ourselves is the level at which we should be alarmed at when others use more. I for one do not think that one American should go through any of these torturous methods or that I should be accepting of these methods by others on our citizens.

I think it is absurd to believe that torture is acceptable. Some of you say that we should not care, that we should do “whatever we have to do”. That is ridiculous, as Americans we should set a higher standard for the world to follow, the reason the Geneva conventions were put in place is to insure that soldiers from all countries are treated properly if taken as prisoners of war. We should set a higher standard if we are to demonstrate our leadership to the world. The majority of experts seem to agree that when being tortured, the victim of the torture will say whatever he thinks we want to hear to end the torture, whether it is true or not… This can and does lead to incorrrect intelligence. John McCain was tortured and held as a prisoner of war, and he has confirmed these statements, it is not something that our country as the leader of the free world should condone. We don’t want our soldiers tortured, so we shouldn’t torture others. Torture hurts our image worldwide, and with the blow we have taken in popularity due to the current administration’s idiocy, we cannot afford to have our image tarnished any further… Especially not if we stupidly are headed for World War 3 as our mentally incompetent president seems to believe…

“Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither.”
-Benjamin Franklin
First you accept torture of the ‘enemy’. Then through the Military Commissions Act of 2006 you can be named by the prez as an ‘enemy combatant’. Sure, everyone who is saying use torture may regret when it is used on them.
let freedom ring

why are you people talk for the Americans?
CIA is a kind of terrorist who invade into other country secretly and do all the bad things.

Surf’s Up! Dudes – grab your waterboards! The big mama is mackin’ some gnarly grinders!
Read: IS THIS REAL WORLD OR IS IT EXERCISE?

this should not be banned its a perfect way to get terrorists or individuals to give information when there not speeking when the the interrogators are giving them the easy way. this should not be banned at all.

So now these war criminals at ABC are outing the people who have been working to protect us! Count another citizen as a new right wing extremist and proud of it!

It’s exhausting to seek out knowledgeable people on this subject, but you sound like you realize what you’re speaking about! Thanks