I know a few zillion bloggers have covered Christopher Hitchens' waterboarding experience. I just want to link to the original article and recommend it.
Hitchens has been the target of heavy criticisms, most of those richly deserved, especially of his indefensible defence of the invasion of Iraq, and his subsequent martyr act.
However, this investigation is beyond reproach. I applaud Hitchens' bravery and honesty, and I applaud his conclusion.
I recommend reading this story, rather than - or perhaps in addition to - reading about it.
3 comments:
I found it fascinating that even though this was done under tightly controlled circumstances and CH knew he could stop the process at any time, that even though he lasted a very short period of time, he still experienced nightmares and continues to have panic attacks.
Imagine how your mind would be destroyed if you were subject to this torture several times a day, for weeks and months, and for much longer than 18 seconds at a clip, and you had no control over it, and were in jail with no hope of ever seeing the light of day.
A review of a related book.
Also: The whole thing looked incredibly banal. It was not a lot of water each time. CH did not kick or twitch or struggle. I could see how someone watching this video would think: "Ehh?"
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