Bond Proposes Rewriting Army Field Manual To Expand Interrogation Options
Bond Proposes Rewriting Army Field Manual To Expand Interrogation Options
Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) hasn’t been known for criticizing the Bush administration’s interrogation techniques. In fact, his most famous comment on the issue came in December 2007, when he compared waterboarding to “swimming”:
GWEN IFILL: Do you think that waterboarding, as I described it, constitutes torture?
SEN. KIT BOND: There are different ways of doing it. It’s like swimming, freestyle, backstroke. The waterboarding could be used almost to define some of the techniques that our trainees are put through, but that’s beside the point. It’s not being used.
The AP reports that Bond appears to have had a change of heart and is searching for a “compromise” over how the CIA can interrogate prisoners. In a letter to fellow senators yesterday, Bond proposed explicitly outlining what tactics are banned, rather than which ones are allowed:
Rather than authorizing intelligence agencies to use only those techniques that are allowed under the AFM [Army Field Manual], I believe the more prudent approach is to preclude the use of specific techniques that are prohibited under the AFM. In this way, the Congress can state clearly that certain harsh interrogation techniques will not be permissible. At the same time, this approach allows for the possibility that new techniques that are not explicitly authorized in the AFM, but nevertheless comply with the law, may be developed in the future.
Specified prohibitions in conjunction with intelligence interrogations would include: forcing the detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts, or pose in a sexual manner; placing hoods or sacks over the head of a detainee and using duct tape over the eyes; applying beatings, electric shock, burns, or similar forms of physical pain; “waterboarding”; using military working dogs; inducing hypothermia or heat injury; conducting mock executions; and depriving the detainee of adequate food, water or medical care.
Bond’s proposal isn’t much of a compromise. Sure, it would ban waterboarding. But it would also give interrogators an unprecedented amount of leeway and still permit acts such as religious desecration. What exactly constitutes “similar forms of physical pain”?
The AFM doesn’t need to be rewritten, as Bond proposes. Both FBI Director Robert Mueller and Lt. Gen. Michael Maples of the Defense Intelligence Agency have testified to Congress that the current AFM — which does not allow waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation tactics — provides them with “the tools that are necessary for the purpose under which we are conducting interrogations.”
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“It’s like swimming, freestyle, backstroke.”
May 9th, 2008 at 6:34 pmWhile restrained, unable to breathe and having water forced (oops, sorry ex-AG Ashcroft) um, I mean, poured down your throat and into your lungs.
Yep, sounds like swimming to me.
It’s clear that the repug party is made up of barbarians, bigots, racists, sadists, lawbreakers and ignoramuses.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:37 pmI think mayhaps Kit is jealous of his imaginary cousin James.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:37 pmIt’s as if one had one’s necktie tightened to the point where one wasn’t able to inhale. That’s not torture, that’s just tie-jacking.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:38 pmWhy do all the Repug chickenhawks have turkey necks????
May 9th, 2008 at 6:40 pmwaterboarding is like swimming is it? I’ll bet he thinks the rack is just a stretching exercise too. What does he think of hot coals, thumbscrews, spikes under the fingernails, pulling out fingernails,…..wait, his mouth is watering.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:44 pmUnka Ho,
It is so interesting that the biggest supporters of torture, have never, and will never be exposed to it.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:48 pmWhy are there so few reasonable Republicans in the government these days? Can someone explain that to me?
May 9th, 2008 at 6:49 pmIt’s like swimming, freestyle, backstroke with 100 lbs of lead tied around your legs while under 50 feet of water for several minutes.
Yeah, sounds like a typical day at the Y.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:51 pmMaybe he’d like to demonstrate it for us.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:52 pmThe backstroke was my best in high school, and I never felt tortured. In fact, it was quite exhilarating. If waterboarding is like the backstroke, I’d say let’s all go down to the YMCA and sign up.
You first, Bond.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pmBuckie Boy Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pmYeah, the Bronx Goodfella Y.
I don’t know if you saw last thread, but you got me crying with laughter at work. Thank you.
“…allows for the possibility that new techniques that are not explicitly authorized in the AFM, but nevertheless comply with the law, may be developed in the future.”
How glorious we are. We, who stand up-right, randomly selected to be given the ability to reason and to dream. We, who shall huddle in cubicles and lunch with our peers to develop new and improved and “enhanced methods of interrogation”.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:00 pmYes, it is illegal unless strictly prohibited. Hm, being forced to eat feces? Not in there. Well go ahead. What about electrodes to the body? Well, depends - it is a lot like different swimming styles.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:02 pmAnyone ever wonder why America is in the crapper…
TOO MUCH COMPROMISING BY IT’S LEADERSHIP…!
America’s Leadership has compromised away what used to be core principles and values so as to allow a pervasive ANTI-American philosophy dictated by outside nations and corporations.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:05 pmGo ahead…write it, vote on it, and approve it.
And when the world community comes a knockin’, we’ll hand you over like a hotter than hot potato. Rendition, anyone?
May 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pmThe only people who support torture are the pundits and the politicians. Professional soldiers and professional interrogators do not use it and do not like to receive detainees that have been tainted by it.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:16 pmobbez_92107 when I do the Grampy McSane things, try and do them in the Simpsons, Homer’s dad, Grandpa Simpsons voice, much funnier.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:16 pmWaterboarding Results in More Terrorist Attacks
The Argument Against Torture — From a Seasoned Interrogator
May 9th, 2008 at 7:19 pmBuckie Boy Says: John McSame = Abe Simpson.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:23 pmI think you’re on to something. Cardboard, syrup and ants is just brilliant, though. I’m still laughing, hours later.
JMOHR Says:
Yes, it is illegal unless strictly prohibited. Hm, being forced to eat feces? Not in there. Well go ahead. What about electrodes to the body? Well, depends - it is a lot like different swimming styles.
Does it mention a hot lead enema? Bamboo slivers under the nails? Tiger cages (Hey, John!)? Strappado? (Don’t google that one, folks, lotsa pr0n). Maybe an Iron Maiden (and not the band, although under certain circumstances…)?
May 9th, 2008 at 7:28 pm“Hell hath no fury than a noncombatant!”
May 9th, 2008 at 7:31 pmWho is this Senator to think that torture is the way to go? How are we even having this discussion in the United States? This man and many others sound like third world leaders. We must be different because we say we are the leading democracy in the world. You can’t have freedom and torture together. You cannot mix rendition, phone tapping, secrets to the nth degree and be a democracy. We are fast heading in the direction of a fascist terrorist state ourselves. Kit Bond and those like him need to pull back a little and reflect. We are supposed to be the good guys. And yes…we are smarter than torture, better than torture, and we should be ashamed of torture.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:36 pmIn a letter to fellow senators yesterday, Bond proposed explicitly outlining what tactics are banned, rather than which ones are allowed
Boy is this ever a slick con. Under Bond’s plan then, waterboarding would be legal unless specifically noted. So any “creative” change makes the new technique acceptable until put on the list. So if you use wine instead of water its not waterboarding. Right?
May 9th, 2008 at 7:40 pmUpside; long time, no see. where you been? glad to have you back here.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:44 pmToday is good day for the aggressive (white) male book of justice.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:05 pmWhoop — #26, I meant to post on the top thread.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:07 pmI don’t see where digging someone’s eyeball out with a fork is specifically banned. Is that supposed to hurt?
May 9th, 2008 at 8:15 pmseems Gen Maples is missing the point. They tried to make it a law that the CIA be limited to the Army Field Manual.
No problem, just add waterboarding the the field manual.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:00 pmSplit another few more hares and we can make stew. Wasn’t this the “Law and Order Party” a few years ago? Unfortunately, he’s not up for re-election this year. Let’s hear from you Pat Roberts of Kansas, or James Inhofe of Oklahoma. What do these geniuses say in their campaigns? I’d guess that torture isn’t even a topic of their campaign stops or ads. Maybe “Kill em all.” That should go over with the uninformed of their states. How about numerous lies about taking away their guns or Obama is a Muslim or we are all gonna die? That would be more like it. Do we have enough hate in this country yet?
May 9th, 2008 at 10:14 pmLet’s waterboard the squirmy little punk (Bond) and THEN help him rewrite the manual.
I’ll take point.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:20 pm“Interrogation Options”? Please. Another deceiving name for torture.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:06 amawww, poor little guys, dont be rough with the honor killing, little girl circumsizing, beheading, civilian hiding behind sons of dogs. you argue its your right to take my tax dollars to do what ever your sick mind comes up with to Christian symbols, but you cry like babies at the thought of one of your allies seeing to much eyebrow of one of the female US soldiers who have captured his cowardly hide.LOL>
May 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pmHopefully, a PATRIOTIC US soldier permanently MAIMED for the LIES of TREASONOUS SCUMBAGS like Bond, Rove and Bush, will FRAG Bond and Rove.
I’m NOT advocating it, but if one of those soldiers BETRAYED by these WAR CRIMINALS did it, I’d say it was FITTING JUSTICE…
May 10th, 2008 at 1:04 pmBond is among the most odious creatures in the Senate.
When I was in the service, I attended the US Army Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca, AZ. I was learning another specialty, but I spent a fair amount of time with the folks in the interrogator’s course. (Friendly tip: Never play poker with interrogators.) There are enough tools for expert interrogators to work with that do not involve physical distress. Torture is morally repugnant, but it is also ineffective. It produces lousy, unreliable information.
Copano Texian, incidentally, makes it clear that at least one village in Texas still has its village idiot.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:33 pm