In an interview with the New Yorker, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said that waterboarding “would be torture” if used against him, but still declined to say whether the technique should be legally classified as torture:
“If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can’t imagine how painful! Whether it’s torture by anybody else’s definition, for me it would be torture,” McConnell told the magazine. […]
McConnell said the legal test for torture should be “pretty simple”: “Is it excruciatingly painful to the point of forcing someone to say something because of the pain?”
McConnell warned that if waterboarding is “ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it.”

That freakin’ lefty. he’s just inviting the Mohammedan Menace to swim over and invade us.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:01 amF***in’ traitor. We need this quasi-torture to obtain quasi-true information from quasi-terrorists.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:13 amSoooo, it would be torture if used on him, but he goes all wishy-washy as to whether or not it’s torture if applied to someone else?
Someone get this man a moral compass! And a brain….geez.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:17 amIf the United States does waterboarding, then it’s not torture. If anyone else does waterboarding then it is torture.
See how simple that is!
** roll eyeballs **
January 13th, 2008 at 1:18 amHow will we ever get the answers we wanted to hear all along unless we torture people?
January 13th, 2008 at 1:22 amLet Chief Justice Roberts get the Waterboarding treatment. He should be able to tell us whether it is torture or not.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:24 amAren’t treaties laws ?
Have we not signed an international treaty stating that torture (including water boarding) IS illegal.
∞
January 13th, 2008 at 2:46 amMcConnell warned that if waterboarding is “ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it.â€
a) The defining character of torture according to international law is severe pain or suffering. Waterboarding causes severe suffering. Ergo, waterboarding is torture.
b) In America there was never the slightest doubt about this until America was discovered doing it.
c) No one who has been waterboarded has any hesitation at all deciding that it qualifies as torture.
d) Someone needs to rent this guy a clue.
McConnell also warned that “if the Spanish Inquisition ever is determined to have been kinda impolite, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone who participated.”
January 13th, 2008 at 3:09 amI’m not sure if this guy is telling the truth, he says two things. Only one way to get it out of him… “Torture” him with a reading of The Constitution!
Listening to this guy should be noted as torture while we’re at it.
January 13th, 2008 at 4:11 amMitch the BIrich is really freaking out. I say’Let hi go’.
January 13th, 2008 at 4:21 amWait a minute.
This is the guy who waterboaded mob members, when he was mayor of NY
January 13th, 2008 at 4:25 amDoes anyone have a link to the New Yorker Article? I have searched their site and cannot find the referenced piece by Wright.
For those who haven’t read the above article, McConnell at the end confirms Cheneys desire to invade Pakistan to get OBL, something the Pakistanis are firmly against.
January 13th, 2008 at 5:26 amWrong for anybody else to pull this crap except for monkey shit for brains boy king dictator - football cheer leader - AWOL - ms. boo$h.
The United States has a historical record of regarding waterboarding as a crime, and has prosecuted individuals for the use of the practice in the past. In 1947, the United States prosecuted a Japanese military officer, Yukio Asano, for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II. Yukio Asano received a sentence of 15 years of hard labor.[31] The charges of Violation of the Laws and Customs of War against Asano also included “beating using hands, fists, club; kicking; burning using cigarettes; strapping on a stretcher head downward.”[74]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding
January 13th, 2008 at 6:50 amMcConnell’s comments remind me of the famous definition of comedy:
If I slip on a banana peel and fall on my butt, it’s tragedy.
If someone else slips on a banana peel and falls on his butt, it’s comedy.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:17 amThen why hasn’t he ordered it ended?
January 13th, 2008 at 7:26 amWaterboarding has “always” been assault under the classic definition of it in any state criminal code. You take someone, against their will (Democracy in action?), force them down, tie them up, gaggle them with water or dunk them. It all comes out the same. The victim (pardon my use of the term) has been assaulted and in “American” jurisprudence, the victim can file a complaint against those who assaulted him. Any idea as to how many assault cases might be out there? Aren’t we supposed to be the good guys? What happened? I’m embarrassed that Americans even talk about this and worse talk about it like it’s a normal thing to do. C’mon countrymen we are smart enough to fight the terrorists without waterboarding and such. In the end we make more of them if we do what they do.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:47 amCan’t you libs ever give up on this??? Who the hell cares if we torture those nice little sweet terrorists pals of yours!! This is absurd.
PS George Bush unfortunately is not running for President this year!
January 13th, 2008 at 8:26 amThese long-assed posts are torture.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:28 amThanks Plunger…for giving my scroll key a workout.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:30 amAre you with US or against US?
Comment by plunger — January 13, 2008 @ 8:46 am
I am against multiple long posts, when a link will do, especially when I have already read most of the pages posted.
Spamming is spamming, no matter the excuse used.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:49 amDNI McConnell, “for me it would be torture.”
But, OK when done to other people?
He’s just like the RePugniScum trolls that live here!! Whaddaya expect? He’s a “loyal Bushie.” No moral core. Heartless and ignorant! A vampire!
January 13th, 2008 at 8:51 am#1, wait, swim? I thought they waterskied. Or is it the Arab menace that swims and the Persian menace that waterskis?
January 13th, 2008 at 8:59 amHeres the problem for the criminals of bushco, one lawman calls it torture and everyone in his administration is a war criminal. They ARE criminals but there is pretense of the emperor clothes by MSM and the villagers. If someone says: Im shocked…. there is but one choice..impeachment.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:11 amOh, yeah right Mikey. I sure there will be a HUGE penalty for Bush officials “if” waterboarding is defined as torture. HUGE.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:18 amBeing he is the leader of National “Intelligence” we respect “it would be torture.”
January 13th, 2008 at 10:12 amIf the Democrats had done it, it would definitely be torture.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:24 amand crucifixtion is a dawdle
January 13th, 2008 at 10:27 amWaterboarding was determined to be torture many years ago and has recently been “undefined” as torture by the Bush regime. However, let’s waterboard the Supreme Court get the kind that we are doing clarified.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:28 amAs a child, I remember hearing stories about Nazi units surrendering to US forces because they knew they would be treated fairly and humanely. This was always related in History or Civics class as part of the logic against using torture.
January 13th, 2008 at 11:05 amMdConnell: Bad things are only bad when done to me, not to them there dark folk who are not even Christian…
January 13th, 2008 at 11:38 amLet’s waterboard Hillary! No, wait a minute, without all that makeup on it looks like she’s already been tortured and it’s torture just to listen to her!
January 13th, 2008 at 11:47 amMcConnell said the legal test for torture should be “pretty simpleâ€: “Is it excruciatingly painful to the point of forcing someone to say something because of the pain?â€
Well, pehaps, in Mr. McConnell’s mind, that “should” be the legal test for torture. But it is not. There is a clearly defined legal test for torture, and waterboarding meets it. The US, along with the rest of the civilized world, agreed with this, until it was discovered that BushCo was using the technique. It was only at that point that the administration decided that “the legal test should be pretty simple”, as if complexity was a fatal flaw of the definition, and the source of all this controversy.
A$$hats.
January 13th, 2008 at 11:53 amComment by John Kerry — January 13, 2008 @ 11:47 am
We get it. You don’t like Ms. Clinton.
January 13th, 2008 at 11:56 amLet’s waterboard Hillary! No, wait a minute, without all that makeup on it looks like she’s already been tortured and it’s torture just to listen to her!
Comment by John Kerry
you trolls are the kind we used to torture in high school…ya never got over it did ya?
January 13th, 2008 at 11:59 amI agree with the earlier posting that we have to convince the media that it is ok to admit that waterboarding is torture and has been considered torture for centuries. George W. should be facing U.S. and international charges for ordering torture. The Democratic presidential candidates should be asked if waterboarding is torture so we can see who has the stones to put an end to this illegal and immoral practice.
January 13th, 2008 at 12:12 pmSpamming is spamming, no matter the excuse used.
Comment by Wayne — January 13, 2008 @ 8:49 am
Agreed. Every time I find multi page posts I know who the author is and I immediately skip to the next post. I assume that people post to be read. Why would someone continually make long posts that others complain about? Just start your own frickin’ blog if you have such a penchant to write. Then give a link to your writing until people start reading/subscribing on their own.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:08 pmhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/ content/ article/ 2007/ 11/ 02/ AR2007110201170.html
McConnell warned that if waterboarding is “ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it.â€
‘nuf sed
January 13th, 2008 at 2:16 pmplunger, someone on Liberty Forum is asking for hard evidence that the israelis did 911. I know about the very suspicious moving van company and the dancing israelis celebrating this American tragedy and some people are saying that michael moore used disinfo to say that the planes that were allowed to leave on 9/12 when all us planes were grounded was not the saudis but the israelis who did 911.
The moving van case is a little complicated and I wonder if you have a good link that outlines what the so called israeli art students, the mossad owned moving companies out of New Jersey and the planes that left just after 911 is outlined as clearly as possible.
The israel codename for 911, The Big Wedding seems to hint at the occult nature of 911 and blasphemously refers to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb by these israelis who think that God is the Jewish people. Not all Jews believe this but the N-o-a-h-i-d-e Jews need to be investigated by non-Jews and Jews.
January 13th, 2008 at 11:52 pm