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Military Attorney: Waterboarding is “tip of the iceberg”
A military attorney who represented a now-freed Guantanamo detainee told CNN on Wednesday that waterboarding is only “the tip of the iceberg”
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Yvonne Bradley was the lawyer for Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian national who was arrested by the (often reported as "corrupt") Pakistani government in April 2002 on suspicion of being a member of al Qaeda. He was then shuffled through a series of CIA “ghost prisons” before being imprisoned at Guantanamo for five years. Last winter, President Obama ordered him released to the United Kingdom, where he had been a legal resident.
Bradley told CNN that when she was first assigned to represent Mohamed, she did not question he was a hardened terrorist, because “my government was saying these were the worst of the worst.” However, she now says, “There’s no reliable evidence that Mr. Mohamed was going to do anything to the United States.”
According to Bradley, when Mohamed was first held at a CIA prison in Morocco, “They started this monthly treatment where they would come in with a scalpel or a razor type of instrument and they would slash his genitals, just with small cuts.”
B-b-b-b-but President George W. Bush stated many times: "we do not torture."
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TheCameraObscura
Los Angeles, California, United States


Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (8)
at 11:53 on May 20th, 2009
I'll assume you're joking and not ignorant.
at 21:22 on May 20th, 2009
Check the source before making your 'smart' comment ... And dont forget the images that showed the torture, rape and abuse in that prison .. R u forgetting the pile of naked men?
Now try to realize what could have happened to the women then ... Its a war on false pretex, its a shame for us that we cause the loss of hundreds of thousands lives ...
BTW, Ignorance is bliss so u can choose to remain ignorant if u want to ...
at 22:33 on May 20th, 2009
Is this torture? Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic used it as an example of an enemy being tortured
Source: politisite.wordpress.com
BTW the Khmer Rouge convictions were not for water boarding. There were a long list of various torture.... water boarding was a part. The combination of all the elements was what made it torture.
Read this
at 06:32 on May 21st, 2009
Read my answer above and try to understand the severity of the situation. Japanese have been tried for waterboarding american soldiers ... So Im sure u r aware that it is illegal.
Doing something for training (where u r guaranteed to receive every fare treatment and comfort) vs using that for prosecution are totally different. For example, two person can have consensual sex and thats perfectly alright and not torture, but when u ve sex against your partner's will thats called rape. I hope I ve clarified the issue to u.
However, if u think waterboarding is the only cruel technique that these detainees have received u r in self denial ... Try to educate yourself in the matter by reading the accounts of the detaines who were tortured there ...
Also, dont forget the pile of naked men and the images of torture and rape .. However, "because many americans go through such experience" u might not consider those as crimes, right?
at 09:09 on May 21st, 2009
The Vietnamese waterboarded American troops,it was called torture. The Japanese waterboarded US troops, it was called torture.
If waterboarding isnt torture as you claim, why not waterboard American suspects? Why didn't the US waterboard Tim McVeigh or terry Nichols?
Will you support the police using waterboarding on American suspects? After all, we had over 17,000 murders last year, if the goal is to save innocent American lives?
Note, the detainees held in Guantanamo Bay have not been convicted of terrorism, thus they are not terrorists. Accusation does not equal guilt, except in fascist societies.
at 11:28 on May 20th, 2009
If you really believe this codswallop, you deserve all the heartbreak that's destined to come your way.
Through meticulous record keeping we know the exact number of pours of water that went into each of the three waterboardings... but we just totally MISSED hackin' on Mohamed's nuts with razor wire?
at 22:25 on May 20th, 2009
Cia Ghoast Prisons are exactly what happens to our captured soldiers. They are blind folded and if they live, are moved from place to place to keep the opposing army from identifying where the prisoners are. This method actually helps save lives as attempts to break out prisonors are foiled. Water boarding is nothing more then what many military soldiers go through in training. John McCain was tortured. He is against waterboarding because America should hold a higher standard... If a group had my child captive and I had a suspect with infomration that could provide for her release... weatherboarding would be the least of what I would do. Water boarding does not meet the Geneva conventions criteria as torture. I hear folks mention the GC but never cite from it. May be a required reading. If water boarding is torture then I have been tortured during my military service several times in NBC school and survival training,
The idea that we want to give more rights to terrorists then military soldiers baffles me.
at 10:35 on May 21st, 2009
If water boarding truly saves lives, then why not use it on American suspects? We had over 17,000 murders last year in the US, that's more than five 9/11's, surely waterboarding "would keep us safe."
Of course,. you and I will be subject to waterboarding if we are suspects.