It is not normally in the nature of this blog for me to upload a post without any of my own input into the discussion. However, there are several things that have prompted me to make an exception on this occasion.
A piece on the Times Online this morning, saying that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, was waterboarded 183 times has redrawn the debate surrounding this form of “harsh interrogation” to the surface.
I was also slightly concerned by James Delingpole’s blog entry that seems almost to make light of waterboarding in order to emphasise his point.
Many people know remarkably little about waterboarding, and what it entails. I feel therefore that I must upload this video of journalist Christopher Hitchens undergoing waterboarding for a Vanity Fair feature. You can read his written account here. I believe this is a video that should be as widely circulated as possible, made by a man for whom I have the utmost journalistic respect:
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I’ve always been suspicious of this video’s admissibility as evidence. It seems to me that directly comparing the mental and physical tolerance levels of Christopher Hitchens and an insurgent who is, presumably; younger, fitter and hardier makes for potential fallacy. I feel that Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s 183 round performance undermines this video somewhat.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that the phrase “unless you have any better ideas…” could be usefully employed here, and also that I’d judge the acceptability of interrogation techniques on their attendant risk of permanent damage - whether physical or psychological. I have to admit that, though I’m without direct experience of waterboarding, I find this pretty tame.
Concerning the argument that waterboarding "produces results", someone compared it with shoplifting. Confront a shoplifter with the moral objections to shoplifting, and they reply, "Never mind that -- just look at all this wonderful stuff I got!"
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