Our Waterboarding Wasn’t Torture Because Feet Were Elevated
[su_right_ad]Karl Rove’s desperate attempt to rationalize torture techniques is ludicrous and laughable.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace pointed out that the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s use of torture had revealed techniques including a “series of near drownings,” sleep deprivation, and unnecessary “rectal feedings.”
“Isn’t that torture by any definition?” Wallace asked.
“No,” Rove insisted. “Let’s get the rectal feedings out. In this report, there are nine references on 14 pages to rectal feedings. And four of those five, it is the result of a hunger strike by the detainee.”
Rove asserted that waterboarding, slapping detainees, and solitary confinement were also “carefully designed.”
“The tests were, do they involved severe pain or suffering or do they involve severe and prolonged mental pain or suffering?” he opined. “And in each instance, these procedures were designed so that they would not pass those barriers.”
“Take, for example, waterboarding,” Rove continued. “In waterboarding — unlike World War II, where the Japanese attempted to drown people by basically pouring water in their mouths — here the feet were elevated so there’s little or not chance of any fluid getting into the lungs. And very careful standards set in place so these would help break the the resistance of the detainee without placing their life in danger.”
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tiredoftea December 14th, 2014 at 10:08 pm
The lies and excuses never end on the Fraud Spews cavalcade of subhuman utterings.
raincheck December 15th, 2014 at 8:07 am
Lol…. Well said
ExPFCWintergreen December 14th, 2014 at 10:24 pm
Pontius Pilate was sure torture works, too
Obewon December 14th, 2014 at 10:30 pm
Rove says Illegal Waterboarding wasn’t torture because the untried and uncharged detainees were naked when whipped by Bush / Cheney Dominatrix Lynndie England.
Jake December 14th, 2014 at 10:43 pm
Now Karl Rove is an expert on terrorism – and here I thought he was simply an expert on long distance medical diagnosis ( his amazing views on Hillary’s health) and electoral predictions -( just ask President Romney ).
Suzanne McFly December 15th, 2014 at 6:58 am
So many have claimed rove is brilliant, I don’t see it and never have.
raincheck December 15th, 2014 at 8:06 am
IKR?
burqa December 14th, 2014 at 11:21 pm
Ok Karl, how about you get waterboarded then, with feet elevated, of course. Then your gasping won’t suck water into your lungs, will it?
What caused the hallucinations, Karl?
It was torture and you were part of it, Mr. Rove.
Neither you nor anyone you worked with will be able to escape having “TORTURER” figuratively tattooed in 6-inch letters across your forehead. If you had any brains, you’d lay low on this one because you can claim to have been out of the Cheney-Addington loop.
But nooooo.
Making it worse is those who want to turn the GOP into the Torture Party.
Can’t wait to see Jeb handle that one….
rg9rts December 15th, 2014 at 12:48 am
Like this idiot would know…
bpollen December 15th, 2014 at 1:40 am
I think he is just trying to live up to his name “Turdblossom” by trying to make a flower bloom from the pile of crap that constituted our war on terror under Cheney-Bush-Rove-Rumsfeld…. Let bin Laden get away, but torture people whose reasons for being in prison were unknown.
Carla Akins December 15th, 2014 at 5:52 am
This man’s entire claim to fame and area of expertise is simply to be wrong. I guess we can apply that here as well. How anyone on earth can defend torture, is beyond me – but speaks volumes about them.
MIAtheistGal December 15th, 2014 at 6:46 am
So, is he saying that were these very same tactics used by one of our enemies on our soldiers, it wouldn’t be torture? Aren’t they really giving a carte Blanche to torture to any foe we face now or in the future to torture our citizens?
Bunya December 15th, 2014 at 1:59 pm
Oh, heaven’s NO! We don’t torture! We “enhance interrogate”.
MIAtheistGal December 15th, 2014 at 2:40 pm
Oh, right. I forgot there was fancy new terminology so we can say we don’t torture.
Suzanne McFly December 15th, 2014 at 6:56 am
If this is the spokesman for their defense of these actions, they are screwed.
Jimmy Cahill December 15th, 2014 at 9:25 am
I’m not sure how people like Rove continue to get media attention, or why anybody even listens to anything he says. He has been wrong about everything over the last decade or so.
William December 15th, 2014 at 10:15 am
Lets just hope that the GOP and Fox spews continues to seek out Karl as the go to guy. .
fahvel December 15th, 2014 at 1:12 pm
what’s really bad is that he is absolutely honest here!!!! It’s empire and all the little folks, as of yore too, work for the nourishment of the king.
rat618 December 15th, 2014 at 10:33 am
and now you have John Yoo saying the CIA might have gone too far and that some of it could be called torture….look out Bush your support team is beginning to crumble and the rats are trying to protect their ass while yours and Cheney’s are left open.
fahvel December 15th, 2014 at 1:10 pm
use a red banner headline when one, just one of these bastards is arrested tried and convicted and sent into a dark concrete cell. otherwise this is all just blshit stuff to keep the energy high.
Bunya December 15th, 2014 at 2:06 pm
Yes, turdblossom, it was a gesture of compassion. Who knows? One of the detainees may have had diabetes. And it’s especially helpful to keep one’s feet elevated after they’ve been tethered to a concrete wall in 20 degree weather for days, and just before water boarding.