Re: Director Brennan: CIA Won't Waterboard Again — Even if Ordered by Future Presiden
Ahhh, I fail to see where in the Constitution it excludes waterboarding. Maybe you can cite a reference? If you are talking about cruel and unusual, it is scary but not cruel... and it has been practiced worldwide for centuries.
All special operations units in all branches of the U.S. military and the CIA's Special Activities Division employ the use of waterboarding as part of survival school (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training, to psychologically prepare soldiers for the possibility of being captured by enemy forces.
So, regale me your facts. Without your unsophisticated attempts at silly yokelisms, if you please.
USC 18 Sec 2441
(a)Offense.—
Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.
(b)Circumstances.—
The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are that the person committing such war crime or the victim of such war crime is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act).
(c)Definition.—As used in this section the term “war crime” means any conduct—
(1) defined as a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party;
(2) prohibited by Article 23, 25, 27, or 28 of the Annex to the Hague Convention IV, Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed 18 October 1907;
(3) which constitutes a grave breach of common Article 3 (as defined in subsection (d)) when committed in the context of and in association with an armed conflict not of an international character; or
(4) of a person who, in relation to an armed conflict and contrary to the provisions of the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended at Geneva on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 May 1996), when the United States is a party to such Protocol, willfully kills or causes serious injury to civilians.
Article 31 and 32 of Geneva Convention
ARTICLE 31 [ Link ]
No physical or moral coercion shall be exercised against protected persons, in particular to obtain information from them or from third parties.
ARTICLE 32 [ Link ]
The High Contracting Parties specifically agree that each of them is prohibited from taking any measure of such a character as to cause the physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands. This prohibition applies not only to murder, torture, corporal punishment, mutilation and medical or scientific experiments not necessitated by the medical treatment of a protected person, but also to any other measures of brutality whether applied by civilian or military agents.
translation: you have no legal legs to stand on.
Besides your characterization of waterboarding is ridiculous.
Please educate yourself. Also the waterboarding use in SERE training isn't even comparable to the waterboarding employed as a torture technique.
waterboarding.org | "His sufferings must be that of a man who is drowning, but cannot drown." -Lt. Grover Flint, Philippine-American War