Torture? You Make the Call

Here's the key paragraph from an FBI agent's report that Excitable Andy and Dickie Durban make such a fuss over:

On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold... On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

Now, without a doubt, being chained to a floor is not pleasant. But it's not torture. It's deliberate discomfort, as are "stress positions" and the like.

As for the AC being turned off and the temperature being "well over 100 degrees" -- hey, that's life. There are a lot of people without AC who have to endure temperatures "well over 100 degrees" for days on end. This is torture? If so, I've undergone torture quite a few times in past Augusts.

And rap music? Give me a break. Obviously they're trying to give this guy headaches and not give him the quiet necessary to think. Playing music loudly is annoying, but once again-- not torture.

So, there you go. Based on that, we're running "gulags" torturing people as badly as the Nazis.

Great Cox & Forkum Cartoon on Durbin: And, by extension, Excitable Andy too.

Torture in Iraq! No AC for Iraq the Model, and Metallica's blaring.

But where is Dick Durbin? Who will speak for Omar?

Thanks for the last two to NickS.

posted by Ace at 12:53 PM

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