2008-07-02 Believe Me, It's Torture

2008-07-02 Vanity Fair Christopher Hitchens \torture\waterboarding\American dishonor http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/hitchens200808 Believe Me, It's Torture &ldquo;One used to be told – and surely with truth – that the lethal fanatics of al-Qaeda were schooled to lie, and instructed to claim that they had been tortured and maltreated whether they had been tortured and maltreated or not. Did we notice what a frontier we had crossed when we admitted and even proclaimed that their stories might in fact be true? I had only a very slight encounter on that frontier, but I still wish that my experience were the only way in which the words "waterboard" and "American" could be mentioned in the same (gasping and sobbing) breath.&rdquo;  "One used to be told – and surely with truth – that the lethal fanatics of al-Qaeda were schooled to lie, and instructed to claim that they had been tortured and maltreated whether they had been tortured and maltreated or not. Did we notice what a frontier we had crossed when we admitted and even proclaimed that their stories might in fact be true? I had only a very slight encounter on that frontier, but I still wish that my experience were the only way in which the words 'waterboard' and 'American' could be mentioned in the same (gasping and sobbing) breath." Direct link to video: YouTube

Comments: Pharyngula   