McCain was never tortured
if you buy the Bush administration's definition of torture. According to the memo drafted by assistant AG Jay Bybee in 2002, for an interrogation technique to amount to torture, it must inflict pain as severe as that brought on by "serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." Findlaw has this and other documents.
The Bush administration has held to this definition of torture, and won't even let us see how it's tortured it to make it countenance the simultaneous use of three or more interrogation techniques, any of which I would consider torture if it were used on me. (The Pres-o-dent doesn't believe in that kind of application of the golden rule. Any dog owner does, though. You wouldn't put a pinch collar on your dog without trying it out--not on your neck, of course, but on your thigh, say. It's only fair to ask the Pres-o-dent to undergo waterboarding, on the presumption that human beings are as entitled to humane treatment as dogs, or that human beings are entitled to at least canine treatment. Perhaps we can have Michael Vick handle the waterboarding of the Pres-o-dent.)
So here's McCain, walking around without "organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." y'know whut, how come he keeps saying he was tortured? Well, he's a politician. He plays fast and loose with words.
But look at this: There's a technology that can inflict unbearable pain without causing any physical damage. Oh, if only it was just a thought experiment! Then we could speculate about it and not have to worry whether it would actually be used as an "interrogation technique." But it's there, and I'm willing to bet that there's still some flunky left over from the Gonzalez era in the Justice Dept who's willing to say that that wouldn't be torture.
Except that we'd never hear about that, would we? Any such advice would be kept secret. Not from the terrorists; the secret torture memos would only confirm what they already believe. These things have to be kept secret from us, the people. Why? It's as if they expect us to actually object when this stuff is done in our names.
if you buy the Bush administration's definition of torture. According to the memo drafted by assistant AG Jay Bybee in 2002, for an interrogation technique to amount to torture, it must inflict pain as severe as that brought on by "serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." Findlaw has this and other documents.
The Bush administration has held to this definition of torture, and won't even let us see how it's tortured it to make it countenance the simultaneous use of three or more interrogation techniques, any of which I would consider torture if it were used on me. (The Pres-o-dent doesn't believe in that kind of application of the golden rule. Any dog owner does, though. You wouldn't put a pinch collar on your dog without trying it out--not on your neck, of course, but on your thigh, say. It's only fair to ask the Pres-o-dent to undergo waterboarding, on the presumption that human beings are as entitled to humane treatment as dogs, or that human beings are entitled to at least canine treatment. Perhaps we can have Michael Vick handle the waterboarding of the Pres-o-dent.)
So here's McCain, walking around without "organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." y'know whut, how come he keeps saying he was tortured? Well, he's a politician. He plays fast and loose with words.
But look at this: There's a technology that can inflict unbearable pain without causing any physical damage. Oh, if only it was just a thought experiment! Then we could speculate about it and not have to worry whether it would actually be used as an "interrogation technique." But it's there, and I'm willing to bet that there's still some flunky left over from the Gonzalez era in the Justice Dept who's willing to say that that wouldn't be torture.
Except that we'd never hear about that, would we? Any such advice would be kept secret. Not from the terrorists; the secret torture memos would only confirm what they already believe. These things have to be kept secret from us, the people. Why? It's as if they expect us to actually object when this stuff is done in our names.
posted by jnerone at 1:39 PM
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