Waterboarding is torture, says Bob Barr — boos follow
Former Georgia congressman, presidential candidate and AJC blogger Bob Barr got himself booed on Friday at the CPAC convention in Washington. His sin: Barr declared that waterboarding is torture – and suggested that U.S. courts are capable of handling trials for terrorists.
This video was posted by the liberal group Think Progress:
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63 comments Add your comment
jw
February 20th, 2010
2:41 pm
Boo who?
Wounded Warrior
February 20th, 2010
2:48 pm
loser
Roger
February 20th, 2010
2:56 pm
Good for Bob – at least he’s true to his principles. Be very wary of government especially the one you yourself support.
Pat
February 20th, 2010
3:06 pm
Of course they did. The GOP insists that waterboarding is not torture. They wouldn’t dare disagree. That would mean that the terrorists have won.
JM
February 20th, 2010
3:07 pm
What’s the big deal? I’ve been waterboarding many times. Fun, actually.
honest abe was a republican
February 20th, 2010
3:19 pm
of course it’s torture, and i say do it to all of ‘em.. let’s see, waterboarding vs. decapitation. waterboarding vs. decapitation. waterboarding vs. decapitation….yeah, i say we waterboard em all.
until the liberal left realizes that that particular group of muslim/islamic terrorists would cut all of our heads off in a second if given the chance, then they just won’t understand..
The Cynical White Boy
February 20th, 2010
3:25 pm
Nah, the REAL torture is staying in school, getting a job, busting your a## at your job, living within your means, and having to WATCH YOUR MONEY being STOLEN from you and GIVEN to people who dropped out, live off the government, worship the Oblah-blahs, and still whine about the FEW things left that the NANNY government does not yet do for them.
Chief Wiggum
February 20th, 2010
4:07 pm
Not sure this directly applies to Bob Barr, but the prevalent liberal thought goes like this: The Muslim terrorists are like bullies in school. The liberals think that bullies are the way they are, due to people not being nice enough to them. They think that if we’re just a lot NICER to the bullies, they won’t bully us. The radical Muslim terrorists, as do bullies, see this as a form of weakness. Coddling bullies doesn’t make them any less likely to steal our lunch money, or in the Muslim case, to cut our heads off.
Do the liberals think that the radical Muslims hate us because we’re too mean to their prisoners? That’s silly. They treat their own people worse than we treat them as prisoners. Sharia law is brutal, far worse than our “torture”. They hate us because we defend Israel. They will not hate us even less if we coddle them when we capture them as terrorists.
joe
February 20th, 2010
4:08 pm
Hey Cynical, change your name to Whiny White Boy. Your party line is getting old so find a new one. Oh wait… that’s right, if you repeat it enough it becomes truth. Typical.
vedette
February 20th, 2010
4:25 pm
About 2008, there was a reunion of World War II intelligence officers in Washington D.C.. They were asked about “enhanced interrogation” as a technique for information-gathering. To a man, they all were opposed. I guess they’re all pansies, and don’t know what they’re talking about.
After the Battle of Trenton, Gen. George Washington prohibited the torture and execution of the Hessian prisoners, who routinely did the same to the captured Colonials. His example, unprecedented at the time, sparked a re-thinking of treatment of POWs in Europe. Washington obviously wasn’t a true patriot, not like you guys.
Bo Doodley
February 20th, 2010
4:32 pm
Idiots to the LEFT of us, and IDIOTS to the RIGHT. God Help Us All.
Chief Wiggum
February 20th, 2010
4:34 pm
To append to my comments: I am aware that Barr is a Libertarian, and not a liberal. When it comes to this issue, Barr appears to fall along the same line of thought as the liberals, though.
Vedette: Saying whether or not waterboarding or other “enhanced techniques” are torture isn’t the same thing as saying whether or not they should be used. No technique should be considered to be okay wholesale. It depends on the case. Comparing to George Washington is a non-starter. His men were capturing regular army, if I remember correctly. The particular cases we are talking about with radical Muslims are those from the inside circle, those with knowledge of the terrorist planning.
Same goes for the WWII prisoners. Nobody is talking about wholesale “enhanced interrogation” of all those captured. It’s particular ones. Also worth noting, our enemy isn’t following the standard rules of fighting, in that their “soldiers” are not uniform-wearing members of a regular army, with the proper designation. We’re talking about isolated civilians, generally, who choose to wage war against the US.
TW
February 20th, 2010
4:39 pm
That liberal in the White House has made more strides toward getting the bad guys in ONE year than ‘w’ did in eight.
Two things the GOP scratched off their resume when they crawled up ‘w’s butt:
1. Fiscal Responsibility
2. Military prowess
Please, just sit back and shut -up while the adults clean up the drunken teenage mess the GOP left on the US…
TAC
February 20th, 2010
4:42 pm
Of course Barr got boooed. He’s sometimes capable of thinking for himself. That’s just not done in this Republican party.
vedette
February 20th, 2010
4:45 pm
Chief Wiggum: The Hessians were mercenaries, and not regular army. I bring it up simply because some posters seem to relish the idea of using torture as payback. They’re mean to us so we’re mean to them. That’s contrary to the principles established for us since the beginning of the country.
And you miss my point in the World War II interrogators. They were saying torture is an ineffective means of getting accurate information, not to mention immoral.
TnGelding
February 20th, 2010
4:53 pm
Who would have thunk it? Bob Barr considered a moderate. He never was the boogey man the Dems painted him to be.
TAC
February 20th, 2010
5:03 pm
Considering the crazies out there today, Barr is a flaming liberal!
Base
February 20th, 2010
5:09 pm
It could not happen to a better guy.
ask a Native
February 20th, 2010
5:18 pm
He damn sure doesn’t express moderate views on this site. But I suppose the “extra” is needed on the blogs.
honest abe was a republican
February 20th, 2010
5:39 pm
the GOP scratched off fiscal responsibility and military prowess…dang that was a good one, i almost fell out of my chair…800 Billion to be spent with one stroke of the pen,,Military leader asks for more troops to get the job done, well, lets wait a few months so i can make up my mind(since i know so much about military operations)…as far as “they’re mean to us, so lets be mean to them”,,huh? it’s war, do what we need to do to get info.. not because they’re mean to us…duh…
oh yeah, about 2008, V.P.Cheney was asked,”of the two times we used enhanced interrogation, did we get any information from the prisoners?” his answer, “yes, absolutely, it helped stop at least 3 more attacks on U.S. soil…”,,,but, of course, it really doesn’t work..
mick
February 20th, 2010
6:00 pm
Honest Abe, do you seriously think that you can believe ANYTHING that Dick Cheney says???
Bullwinkle
February 20th, 2010
6:04 pm
So, if Dick Cheney says it, then it’s absoultly true??? No proof or substantiation needed huh honest abe!!!
George
February 20th, 2010
6:05 pm
Cheif Wiggum: like many conservatives, your assessment of the way that “liberals” think is way off base. I imagine that you would probably classify me as a “liberal” based on my politics, yet I don’t believe any of the things that you suggest I do. In fact, no one I know thinks that.
Why am I against torture? Two reasons. First, it’s ineffective. Second, it lessens us. I don’t think that we should sell ourselves out for the sake of getting a few bits of dodgy information. That’s it. Note that I said nothing about being nice to terrorists so that they’ll be nice to us.
herbert hoover was a republican
February 20th, 2010
6:43 pm
Maybe waterboarding isn’t enough. Maybe we as a nation should seriously consider getting medieval on these terrorists. Maybe start pulling their toenails out until they tell us what we want to hear. Maybe we should start kidnapping and raping their spouses and children. We can make them watch to really send a message. If that doesn’t work, maybe we can start enlist the TRUE patriots among us, like JM, honest abe and the Cynical White Boy to serve their country by becoming suicide bombers. We have to send the message that whatever they can do, we can do better. Why would we want to serve as the example of what democracy, with its outdated “laws” and “justice”, should really be when the terrorists would still want to “cut our heads off in a second if given the chance”?
TW
February 20th, 2010
6:48 pm
Dick Cheney had 25 deferments when it was his chance. Actually a good thing, being he likes to shoot his buddies in the face.
Having him in ‘w’s brain-dead ear needlessly cost of thousands of soldiers. That right-wingers still champion dick and his stupidity only underscores their not giving a rats a ss about those who serve.
Todd
February 20th, 2010
7:19 pm
i think we need to put all the whiners and crybabies that whine about water boarding and being kind to terrorists in a tall building and let the terrorists have at em…LOL
The Truth Hurts
February 20th, 2010
7:24 pm
ooooooooobammmma ooooooooobammmmmma oooooo nooooooooo ooooooooo yeah!! LOL what a difference a year makes…Obama the worst president ever..and the fastest drop in public support…thats what happens when a liberal socialist takes office and is too busy on the gold course when america is being attacked by terrorists. George Bust no attacks in seven years,,,,Obama not even a year and two terrorist attacks…..this president is weak….your family will die under this president!!
L Dodd
February 20th, 2010
8:03 pm
Truth is better served when people know the difference between fact and opinon. Anytime one individual attempts to decare that some other person or group believes, that’s opinion, not fact. Y’all are all entitled to your opinions, including Bob Barr. Those that did boo, though showing their ill manners with their means of expressing it, are entitled to their view as well. I suspect, though, that the view of those that did boo would change if they were being waterboarded. Shouting someone down doesn’t make you right.
Crystal Clear Latino Girl
February 20th, 2010
8:05 pm
Um, what The Cynical White Boy really meant to say folks was:
Nah, the REAL torture is staying in school, getting a job, busting your a## at your job, living within your means, and having to WATCH YOUR MONEY being STOLEN from you and GIVEN to people Wall Street, live off the taxpayer bailouts initiated by the Republican Party, worship the <Pack with the Devil Pat Robertson, and still whine about the FEW things left that the NANNY government does not yet do for them.
bigdawg
February 20th, 2010
8:06 pm
The amount of stupid, uneducated, bigoted, mouth-breathing neo-cons on this blog never ceases to amaze me. If you big, bad, America-loving “patriots” want to kill and/or torture all the extremist Muslims, please report to your nearest recruiter’s office and join up. You’ll get “three hots and a cot,” and you’ll have many chances to leave your family for a year at a time and put your money (and your miserable lives) where your hateful, jingoistic, motor-mouth is. But, of course, you’re a chicken as Dick Cheney was about actually doing something about the barbarians at the gate…losers!
P.S. I’ll be the majority of you torture-mongers will be in church tomorrow patting yourselves on the back about how good and righteous you are. Just pathetic!
bigdawg
February 20th, 2010
8:10 pm
Well put, Crystal Clear Latina Girl. You remind me of justice Sotomayor!
bigdawg
February 20th, 2010
8:12 pm
Why aren’t all you armchair patriots out there fighting against the Klan or the Aryan Nation or the myriad white supremicist groups that advocate violent overthrow of our government. That’s treason, if you ask me! Why aren’t you out there fighting those terrorists?
I believe
February 20th, 2010
8:21 pm
Listening to Bob Barr is torture. Give me a good waterboarding any day
JabboRockefeller
February 20th, 2010
8:23 pm
My only concern about water-boarding is that water could possibly be wasted. Hope it’s circulated…
I’ll bet Pakistani & CIA interrogators are doing more than water-boarding with this last big catch. Head in a vice maybe?
John
February 20th, 2010
8:23 pm
We would have lost WW11 if we had more Bob Barrs.
HOW ABOUT SOME RESEARCH?
February 20th, 2010
8:25 pm
I challenge you GOP’ers to do some research on the cost of the welfare system vs. the cost of the defense budget, the bank bailouts, or the profits raked in by the crooked CEO’s at BofA, AIG, Bear Stearns, and others who are ripping off the nation by the BILLIONS year after year after year.
Here’s a great place to start:
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/welfare_budget_2010_4.html
I’ll also challenge you to take your parents off of Medicare and Social Security (after they’ve recovered a fair return for what they put in, of course). If you were TRULY anti-handout, you’d stick to your principles… but of course, who’d give up free money? Even a GOP’er wouldn’t do that
and please tell me on the below chart, which years were the GOP control both the executive and legislative branches?
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/charts.html
at least educate yourself if you are going to get on these blogs and chirp and complain
bigdawg
February 20th, 2010
8:26 pm
When was WW11. I know only of WWI and WWII. Of course, neo-cons always need a boogey-man so they can try to feel superior! Bwhahahaha!!
bigdawg
February 20th, 2010
8:28 pm
HOW ABOUT SOME RESEARCH…you know they’re not going to do that. It’s the old “why let the truth screw up a good story,” attitude that dooms them. Oh, how I hope the nominate Sarah “I can see Russia from my house” Palin in 2012. It’ll be a ass-whoopin of epic proportions!! Bwhahahahaha!!!
Tony
February 20th, 2010
8:32 pm
bigdawg, your bitter logic is incoherent. So what do you make of someone who actually IS in the military and supports these same policies? Since you can’t label them as hypocritical, what then? The best you can do is call names. You are pathetic.
Tony
February 20th, 2010
8:34 pm
Neocon, Neocon, blah blah blah. I wish I was enlightened as you. Bwahahahaha? What’s that sound are you looking in the mirror again?
Tony
February 20th, 2010
8:37 pm
My parents put in way more than they will ever get out of SS and medicare. F u, you pretentious losers. Its not a handout if we (over) contributed, you numb scull.
Boo hoo, those crooked evil CEO’s. You probably can’t even run your own life, let alone a company.
bigdawg
February 20th, 2010
8:38 pm
Tony, I’ve worked for the Army for 25 years. At least those who are in the service have a dog in the fight. I know plenty of neo-cons in the Army. It doesn’t make them correct, but at least they’re willing to go over there and fight for what they believe. Are you? Sorry your little, white world is all you know. BTW, most African-Americans in the service voted for your current president. Are you going to call them unpatriotic?
bigdawg
February 20th, 2010
8:39 pm
Tony, the word is “numbskull.” Please consult a dictionary while blogging. English is a beautiful language when used correctly…please try.
bigdawg
February 20th, 2010
8:45 pm
All neo-cons support corporate welfare, don’t they (you know, Bush’s “base”). As long as it benefits the rich, right?
RainbowMittens
February 20th, 2010
8:58 pm
I think we have lost our ability to be a “community” as a nation. Until we can regain that, things are just going to drag along. We have got to find the common ground that united us all these years, and come back to being a civil society that allows equal voices. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are always right or wrong.
Republican
February 20th, 2010
9:28 pm
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. World class idiots!
Tired of BS
February 20th, 2010
10:21 pm
I hope the GOP will open it’s arms and once again become a party of fiscal responsibility. The brain dead idea that they should contol a woman’s body is no more irresponsible than a democrat who thinks they do a better at controlling the purse strings of American citizens. Bob Barr is like many independent thinking people, who came to realize that the party left us first. I applaud his efforts.
Bad Karma
February 20th, 2010
10:47 pm
Barr is Cynthia McKinney in drag. Yep, water boarding is torture and I could not care less whatever is done to an enemy of the United States. That enemy will kill a US soldier in a heart beat, that enemy will behead an American, that enemy will drag the body of a US soldier through the street or hang the body from a bridge. The liberals or whatever they are can cry me a river, if I ran the show our enemy would be getting a whole more than water. God Bless America and our soldiers!
honest abe was a republican
February 20th, 2010
11:30 pm
i’m nor a GOP’er or a Liberal lefty, i just wake up every morning,run my own business to the best of my ability, love my family to the best of my ability, and be the best friend i can be to those around me. all i expect from the Federal Government is two things…first(and most importantly), protect me and my family from any enemies that this country may have and do whatever that takes to keep me safe. and second…stay out of my pocket!! take what you need to take to do number one..nothing more, nothing less…btw, i am a huge,,HUGE, contributor to the Carter Center, and have been for a very long time. Let me decide who gets my charity…and yes, i do deserve to make my own decision on that after serving my time in the US Army during Desert Storm….ty..
one more thing, what exactly do some of suggest we do to the terrorists that want to cut our heads off? ask them nicely not too…seriously, give some suggestions before knocking somebody else’s ideas…
CitizenK9
February 21st, 2010
1:12 am
Rip up the Geneva Convention. Full speed ahead with torture. The men and women of our military won’t talk no matter what they do to them. Jihadis don’t have the same fortitude.
Mrs. Glenn Richardson
February 21st, 2010
10:46 am
Torture? Try living with Glenn…
Tommy Lee Maddox
February 21st, 2010
4:33 pm
Why don’t some of you folks turn out to protest when our soldiers’ testicles are cut off and stuffed down their throats before they are set on fire by individuals you do not wish to see get wet?
Grow a spine then put a brain on top.
DirtyDawg
February 21st, 2010
7:14 pm
I used to think that ‘conservatism’ was, as Galbraith said, simply the search for a better excuse for selfishness. Now it’s clear that it has, in addition to graduating to unvarnished greed, become another word for sadism.
Barr said it,…General Petraeus has said it…hell, even Colin Powell has said it…it’s not just because it’s the law under the Geneva Convention, it’s both the wise and ‘right’ thing to do. If you all want to be like Cheney then you’ll be mired, along with the rest of the bottom feeders, in the worst 13% of the country that still agrees with the Dick.
Lewis
February 21st, 2010
10:01 pm
General Daniel Petraeus just confirmed that he is firmly against torture, that it is counter-productive, and that the techniques in the Army Manual are far more effective. Why are so many commenters not supporting our military? It seems to me they are trying to help the enemy.
Billy O
February 21st, 2010
10:42 pm
If you want to get a feel for what waterboarding feels like, just turn you face up in the shower and try to breath. It definitely gives you a uneasy feeling……torture…..I think not.
Sic semper tyrannis
February 21st, 2010
11:17 pm
Everyone wailing and gnashing their teeth about “welfare recipients” NAME TWO PEOPLE the you know for certain receive a welfare check without having to put in 20+ hours per week in meetings and training to get it. Welfare is a thing of the past: it’s the racial codeword bait your leaders use to get you snarling and wanting blood. When Southern Company get several million in tax breaks and doesn’t have to pay to clean up the soot you are breathing in from their coal plants, or Georgia Pacific (division of the TRUE Terrorist Empire – Koch Industries) pays no taxes while it clearcuts state land for pulp, that’s not kind of welfare your handlers want to make you aware of.
The people who are the biggest threat to your way of freedom, health, security and way of life aren’t the donkey #!)%ers who live in the hardscrabble caves of Afghanistan. They are the suits and ties in board rooms of banks and multi-nationals who use your tax dollars to get government to make them wealthier at your expense. Compare the money GE, Lockheed, Rockwell and the other beltway bandits make and it PALLS in comparison to the social safety net for the lower-middle classes. Anyone who is unemployed and still believes big government is a threat should feel free to give up the checks back to reduce the deficit.
The Tuna
February 21st, 2010
11:29 pm
Tommy Lee Maddox – any relation to Lester? Just for the record, can you give us any names, ranks or dates of a US soldier who had their “testicles cut off and stuffed down their throats” in either Iraq or Afghanistan? I remember a story about a guy that happened to in “Nam, but different war, different enemy.
Billy, for an adequate comparison to water boarding, stand on your HEAD in the shower with with a couple friends holding up your legs. Shoot COLD water at maximum pressure down your nostrils for 40 seconds or so……let’s see if you change you mind..
For every civilian we detain for years without trial or kill by accident, we create 20-50 people seeking vengence. I suggest we get out of those hell-hole countries post-haste and spend 10% of the money we’d save militarily for better facial recognition and no-fly lists to make sure we don’t have any organized terror suspects coming into the US in the first place.
WhoRunIt
February 22nd, 2010
1:00 am
OK Tuna, so waterboarding sucks but it’s not quite like you’re describing. It is an effective interrogation technique. It’s designed to induce panic. It’s designed to obtain information from insane people who WANT to die in order to cause death to Americans. Do some research. Here i’ll get you started.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PjjMnT1xs4&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Honest Abe was a "good" Republican
February 23rd, 2010
3:16 am
Prez Lincoln was willing to take risks to keep the U.S. together. He CARED about the people as a whole. That is a complete flip-flop compared to the “vicious circle” Republicans who not only put down their own party, but anyone else who DARES to speak the truth about them. “Conservative” Republicans in Congress from 1995 on are the ones who created the mess we are in now. Cheney could have captured Bin Ladin 2 months after 9-11, but pulled back the troops when they were close. “Conservative” Republicans have filibustered and stopped over 80% of all legislation – more good than bad – from passing. Several years ago they did the same and gave away to Canada our Gold mining rights – a 10 million dollar industry – for only $10,000. The rabid republicans of today are the biggest losers and dividers of the U.S. Also, my father is a 91 yr old WW II AF vet, a Colonel, who was in intelligence in Austria, Berlin and Italy and interrogated Nazis and Communists. He’s always been a vehement Republican, but he has refused to become involved with this type of Republicanism that is ruining the country.
Honest Abe was a "good" Republican
February 23rd, 2010
3:19 am
As far as Cheney goes, he’s got his hands in Halliburton – you betcha! Halliburton has made billions off the backs of good soldiers in this war. Cheney is smiling all the way to the bank. Do you think he really WANTS to end this war? His buddy Bush is raking in the cash off the oil crisis. Notice how when it was time for Bush to “retire” from the Presidency in 2008, gas prices started to go back down?
Black Republican
February 23rd, 2010
11:15 am
Okay, so waterboarding may be torture to some people (I personally don’t think so). But, what is worse? Cutting off the heads of U.S. servicemen, women, and contractors or waterboarding? Waterboarding is FAR LESS invasive than decapitating someone.
Rob Lopez
February 23rd, 2010
12:55 pm
Black Republican’
I have served my country for over 20 years and I know what it feels like to give life saving aid to an enemy who just killed one of my best friends. This is what separates true Americans from radicals in this world. We must be held to higher moral standard and not become barbaric! This should put an end to this blog in my view
Rob
mike
February 23rd, 2010
1:53 pm
If waterboarding terrorists saves one American life, I’m all for it!