Senator: Some forms of waterboarding 'like swimming, freestyle, backstroke'

wallyburger · December 13th, 2007, 05:57 AM

Unh..... I guess so.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline...r-some-fo.html

Quote:

Senator: Some forms of waterboarding 'like swimming, freestyle, backstroke'

Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri is the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been pressing CIA Director Michael Hayden on the destruction of videotapes that reportedly show terror suspects being waterboarded. Last night, he appeared on PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer to talk about Hayden's recent committee testimony -- and he was asked about the controversial interrogation technique that critics say is torture.

"What the CIA is doing is not torture. It conforms to the Detainee Treatment Act, the Geneva Convention, the Convention against Torture. None of these things that are being used, by any stretch of the imagination, could be described as torture," Bond told interviewer Gwen Ifill.

Following up, Ifill asked Bond directly if waterboarding was torture. Bond responded by equating some forms of the technique to swimming.

"There are different ways of doing it. It's like swimming, freestyle, backstroke. The waterboarding could be used almost to define some of the techniques that our trainees are put through, but that's beside the point. It's not being used," Bond said. However, he went on to say that he "certainly would not favor it in any circumstance."

Still, the "swimming" equation got the attention of the liberal blogosphere. "And the Rack is Just Like Pilates," is the headline on this Credo Action blog post today.

Here's the full transcript of last night's NewsHour interview, featuring Bond and Sen. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who also is an Intelligence Committee member.
Posted by Randy Lilleston at 02:40 PM/ET, December 12, 2007 in Terrorism, Washington | Permalink

UncleChris · December 13th, 2007, 06:43 AM

Maybe the CIA should get ahold of "the fine senator" and have him go out for a test swim. Wonder if his opinion might change, hhhhmmmmmm???????

wallyburger · December 13th, 2007, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleChris

Maybe the CIA should get ahold of "the fine senator" and have him go out for a test swim. Wonder if his opinion might change, hhhhmmmmmm???????

Forced drowning and resuscitation, if lucky, is recreational activity for the test subject? No thanks, I'll find something else to do at the beach.

UncleChris · December 13th, 2007, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallyburger

Forced drowning and resuscitation, if lucky, is recreational activity for the test subject? No thanks, I'll find something else to do at the beach.

You and me, partner!

We can talk about all the sharp tacks in "the upper house" of Congress....

Chris_Sanders · December 13th, 2007, 10:12 AM

I thought the Rack=Pilates was pretty funny. However, there is nothing funny about what Kit Bond said.