Only in the figurative sense!
"McCain Rebukes Giuliani on Waterboarding Remark" by MICHAEL COOPER and MARC SANTORA
Rudolph W. Giuliani’s statement on Wednesday that he was uncertain whether waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique, was torture drew a sharp rebuke yesterday from Senator John McCain, who said that his failure to call it torture reflected his inexperience.
Mr. McCain, who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, in a telephone interview:
“All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today.”
[And the Palestinians, and whoever we have in our secret gulags, too, John!]
Mr. McCain said of presidential candidates like Mr. Giuliani, who say that they are unsure whether waterboarding is torture:
“They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture.”
Mr. Giuliani said on Wednesday night at a forum in Davenport, Iowa, that he favored “aggressive questioning” of terrorism suspects and using “means that are a little tougher” with terrorists but that the United States should not torture people. On the question of whether waterboarding is torture, however, Mr. Giuliani said he was unsure.
[Like Mukasey, huh? Is it torture, Muk? "I don't know."
Are you going to get the AG job? Gee, I DON'T KNOW, Muk!
Are you going to win the presidency, Rudy? Gee, I DON'T KNOW!]
Giuliani, adding that he was unsure whether descriptions of the practice by the “liberal media” were accurate:
[Blaming the "liberal" media? You gonna let him get away with that, Times?]
“It depends on how it’s done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it.”
[Translation: If done by USrael, it's NOT torture.
If done by anyone else, it IS torture!
Easy, huh? Whay the indecision, guy?]
Dr. Allen S. Keller, the director of the Bellevue/N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture, said waterboarding involved tipping a person back, covering his mouth with a cloth and repeatedly pouring water over the cloth to make him gag and experience a drowning sensation. If it is done long enough, Dr. Keller said, there is a risk that the person may drown or have a heart attack.
[Guess you wouldn't mind taking a spin on the old waterboard then, 'eh, Rudy?]
With the exception of Mr. McCain [And Ron Paul, shitters!], who believes that torture is ineffective because its victims will say anything to make it stop, several leading Republican presidential candidates have suggested that they would use aggressive or coercive interrogation techniques — they say they would stop short of torture — to prevent a terrorist attack.
[That means that the 400 years worth of crimes KSM "confessed" to are BOGUS?!
The tortured "mastermind" of 9/11?
Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!]
Fred D. Thompson, the actor and former senator from Tennessee, said at a recent stop in Florida that he would not use waterboarding “as a matter of course” but that in certain circumstances officials had to “do what is necessary” to prevent attacks and save lives.
[This whole "debate' is SICK, SICK, SICK!!]
Mr. Giuliani’s remarks about waterboarding seemed to leave more leeway toward using the practice than remarks he made at a news conference in June. Then, he said that he favored aggressive interrogation techniques, but that “I think you can do it without something like waterboarding.” On Wednesday night, he made it clear that officials should have a wide array of options available to them to try to prevent a potential attack.
The Giuliani campaign responded to Mr. McCain’s comments with a statement from its senior military adviser, Adm. Robert J. Natter, retired, the former commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet.
Admiral Natter:
“The highly politicized nature of political campaigns makes that forum a poor arena in which to debate the distinctions between torture and different forms of interrogation. Is waterboarding torture? I don’t know. I was waterboarded as part of my military training, and I would say that it falls into a gray area.”
[Another guy who doesn't know what torture is.
Get him up on the board, and then ask him!
I doubt it will be "gray area" then, asshole!]
Dr. Keller, an outspoken opponent of waterboarding and similar techniques, said of such trials that “context is everything,” because people who are waterboarded as an experiment or as part of their training know that they will not be hurt in the end.
[Aren't you proud, Amurkn? I'm ashamed!]
Mr. Giuliani, in his remarks in Iowa, also criticized Democrats who call sleep deprivation torture:
“They talk about sleep deprivation,. I mean, on that theory, I’m getting tortured running for president of the United States. That’s plain silly. That’s silly.”
[What a fucking jerk! No funny or silly at all!
What an ASSHOLE he is!!!!!!!
Like Romney saying his kids are serving the war effort by working his campaign.
This is DISGUSTING!!! Literally DISGUSTING!]
Mr. Giuliani’s remarks were criticized by Human Rights Watch.
Jennifer Daskal, who specialized in counterterrorism for the group, faulted him for suggesting that “sleep deprivation is a joke.”:
“Perfected by the Soviets, sleep deprivation is one of the cruelest, most painful forms of torture."
[George Bush's AmeriKa: Soviets 'R Us!!!
You feeling a swelling of PRIDE, Amurkns?]
For his part, Dr. Keller said he was troubled by the distinctions being drawn between torture and enhanced investigation techniques.
“We should use a common-sense approach. If it looks like torture, if it smells like torture, it probably is torture."
[Then it is TORTURE!!!!!
Just like a DUCK QUACKING!]
