On Waterboarding or Mafia Bosses, Presidents, and Other Criminal Types

The FBI, working with other law enforcement agencies, rounded up a whole bucket full of Mafioso types the other day, in this country and in Italy. Good for them.

But the job isn't finished. They missed some biggies right here in plain sight. The Associated Press reports that the Mob is tied to many large construction jobs in New York City. That doesn't surprise you If you've watched "The Sopranos" on television or gone to the movies to see "The Godfather." If you've read about Rudy Guiliani's "friends" you're even less surprised.

The biggest bunch of crooks they missed, however, are not Mafioso, but politicos; the politicos that run our government. One of them is our president.

On Feb. 5, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, the director of the CIA, testified before Congress that the US of A has used the torture tactic of waterboarding on at least three occasions in the recent past.

He went on to say that he banned its use by the CIA in 2006. The Pentagon has banned it, and Robert Mueller, director of the FBI says the FBI doesn't use "coercive tactics." Yeah, right.

But our "Decider" in the White House claims that waterboarding is legal, that it is not "torture," and that it has saved American lives. He also says that he'll use it again if he figures it is necessary to obtain information from the bad guys.

[The Bushites have gotten themselves into a bind here. If waterboarding is considered torture and therefore, illegal, they could be subject to civil and/or criminal charges, and possible international war crimes charges.]

What can we say about this? First of all, my dictionary defines torture as "The infliction of severe pain as a means of punishment or coercion," and/or "Pain or mental anguish." How can Mr. Bush say waterboarding is not torture? And if it is "not torture," why would he want to "not torture" someone to gain information? Why would he say that waterboarding has saved American lives if it was not an instrument of torture used to coerce captives to give up their secrets? Did it make our enemies so happy that they gladly offered up the information we wanted?

A major problem with any kind of torture is that studies have shown it does not work, if its goal is to obtain reliable information. People who are being tortured will say anything they believe their tormentor wants to hear in order to stop the pain and anguish.

Secondly, in spite of what the dismal doofus in the White House says, the great majority of nations and people around the world consider waterboarding an especially terrible form of torture. The U.N.'s Convention Against Torture has outlawed it. Most folks believe it is banned under the U.S. 2006 Military Commissions Act which forbids treating terror suspects in ways that are "cruel, inhuman and degrading."

Waterboarding, which involves creating a sensation of drowning, is not new; it goes back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition!

The fact that the leadership of my country wants to pretend this is a perfectly legitimate way to obtain information from those they consider enemies, is crushingly sad. We have moved back in time morally to where the Islamic fascists live.

In at least one important respect, we have become our enemy!

Good god, what would Bush do if he wasn't guided by Christian "family values?"