I have long argued in my column as well as numerous blog postings that our country is legally bound to prosecute people responsible for ordering torture during the Bush Administration. There is no question that water boarding is torture as recognized by President Obama, Attorney General Holder, the United Nations and virtually every expert in this field. However, while you may want to try to rewrite legal precedent (as did John Yoo and Jay Bybee in their infamous Torture Memos), you should not try to rewrite history. That is what former Vice President Dick Cheney appears to be doing this month. He told Chuck Todd on Sunday that we never prosecuted anyone for water boarding — an assertion that I and others have repeatedly raised over the years. The statement is simply false and adds historical revisionism to legal revisionism in our sordid foray into torture.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” this last Sunday, Todd asked: “When you say waterboarding is not torture then why did we prosecute Japanese soldiers?”
Cheney responded:
“Not for waterboarding. They did an awful lot of other stuff. To draw some kind of moral equivalent between waterboarding judged by our Justice Department not to be torture and what the Japanese did with the Bataan Death March, with slaughter of thousands of Americans, with the rape of Nanking and all of the other crimes they committed, that’s an outrage. It’s a really cheap shot, Chuck, to even try to draw a parallel between the Japanese who were prosecuted for war crimes after World War II and what we did with waterboarding three individuals — all of whom are guilty and participated in the 9/11 attacks.”
In fact, we did prosecute. Indeed, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East convicted and ultimately executed Japanese war criminals Akira Muto and Iwane Matsui for atrocities at Nanking. This included water boarding prisoner, though it was called “the water treatment” where “the victim was bound or otherwise secured in a prone position; and water was forced through his mouth and nostrils into his lungs and stomach until he lost consciousness.”
Moreover, in 1947, we prosecuted Yukio Asano for the following these specific acts:
Specification 1: That in or about July or August, 1943, the accused Yukio Asano, did willfully and unlawfully, brutally mistreat and torture Morris O. Killough, an American Prisoner of War, by beating and kicking him, by fastening him on a stretcher and pouring water up his nostrils.
Specification 2: That on or about 15 May, 1944, at Fukoka Prisoner of War Branch Camp Number 3, Kyushu, Japan, the accused Yukio Asano, did, willfully and unlawfully, brutally mistreat and torture Thomas B. Armitage, William O. Cash and Munroe Dave Woodall, American Prisoners of War, by beating and kicking them, by forcing water into their mouths and noses, and by pressing lighted cigarettes against their bodies.
Specification 5. That between 1 April, 1943 and 31 December, 1943, the accused Yukio Asano, did, willfully and unlawfully, brutally mistreat and torture John Henry Burton, an American Prisoner of War, by beating him, and by fastening him head downward on a stretcher and forcing water into his nose.
Asanao was sentenced to 15 years confinement at hard labor.
As noted by the Washington Post, First Lt. Seitara Hata, Sgt. Major Takeo Kita and Sgt. Hideji Nakamura faced similar charges. As noted by the Post, the testimony included that of Cpt. William Arno Bluehe who said “After beating me for a while they would lash me to a stretcher, then prop me up against a table with my head down. They would then pour about two gallons of water from a pitcher into my nose and mouth until I lost consciousness. When I revived they would repeat the beatings and ‘water cure’ . . . . The tortures and beatings continued for about six hours.”
Then there was Thomas B. Armitage:
“[We] were strapped to stretchers and warm water poured down our nostrils until we were about ready to pass out. [The Japanese] strapped him to a stretcher and elevated his feet and then poured on his face so that it was almost impossible for him to get his breath. [The victim] was then taken into the corridor, strapped to a stretcher, which was tilted so that his head was toward the floor and feet resting on a nearby sink.Water was then poured down his nose and mouth for about twenty minutes. Then I was taken into the hallway of the barracks. Both of the Japanese still insisting I was guilty and urging me to confess.”
Likewise, during the Vietnam War, an American soldier was court-martialed for water boarding a prisoner.
Ironically, while the Senate Report works hard to exonerate the Senators themselves from their past knowledge as well as Bush and Cheney, Cheney to his credit has admitted that both he and Bush were fully informed of the use of program.
The cost of our torture program — and the failure to prosecute a single official for it (or the destruction of evidence and false statements revealed in its aftermath) will continue to cost this country dearly. Countries like Iran, North Korea, and China have already cited our use of water boarding to defend against their own abuses. When our soldiers or citizens are water boarded in the future, countries will play back Cheney’s words and others to say that such abuse is not torture. When we demand that officials in other countries be prosecuted for torture, they will mock our hypocrisy and own history. As much as history may be an inconvenient contradiction for people like Cheney, it will remain unrevised and unvarnished. We have prosecuted both Americans and foreigners for water boarding and we were right to do so. That is not the history that we should work to forget.
Waterboarding is not torture. Tens of thousands of officer candidates in the American military have undergone waterboarding as part of their SERE training. Severlal members of the media voluntarily underwent waterboarding so they could better understand what it is. No one would voluntarily undergo torture, nor would our military torture officer candidates as part of routine training.
The notion that it is torture is nothing more than progressives hoping that they can find some way to put Cheney and Bush on trial and then into prison, period. They seem conveniently forgetful that waterboarding was performed while Bill Clinton was president, and the the Senate Intelligence Committee was fully briefed on the procedure and approved of it.
While I doubt the many here want to listen to a different perspective, below is the video of the interview of Dr. James Mitchell, the psychologist who devised the system. Waterboarding is enhanced interrogation, it is not torture.
The idea of waterboarding is repugnant. However, I feel that it is appropriate when applied to terrorists who have information that would stop a terrorist attack and save innocent lives. Two examples: Knowledge of who and when a group of people will fly commercial airplanes into building(s) and lknowledge of a “Dirty Bomb” – its location and time of detonation.
The moral high ground is easy when applied in theory.
I watched Dick Cheney on MTP. It was torturous and sickening listening to him with his moral equivalences statements. His keeping defining torture as flying a plane into the WTC was disgusting. What an Arse. Prosecute this man and any others involved today. He has admitted to what he ordered, he has admitted that he will do it again. What do you do to a drunk that tells the judge he will drive straight to the bar to get drunk then drive home drunk? That is Dick Cheney.
If you compare enhanced interrogation techniques to football goals, then the Taliban scored a big one in Pakistan. Killing those school kids.
How do you play against a team that doesn’t play fare and fights to the death?
On August 6, 2001 (one month before 9/11), Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush were warned in great detail about the threat of attack. The FBI also received a field report of foreigners taking flying lessons in Florida, the students only wanted to learn how to “take-off” from the runway, not land a plane.
The Bush Administration did not keep us safe and actually had all of the tools and intelligence to prevent 9/11 altogether. Instead of owning up they asked for more power and bigger agencies (even though large bureaucracies were part of the problem).
Today’s threat from ISIS is a direct result from the Bush Administration disbanding the Iraqi military and government institutions. Peaceful Iraqis were abandoned by the Bush Administration and that is why they sided with extremist groups in the first place..
G Tod: please read the Geneva Convention on torture. No, you won’t have to fly to Switzerland.
The Navy Seal who killed bin Laden was on CNN yesterday. He said he endured much worse than water boarding during his Seal training. He found water boarding just a drill to hold your breath. It has also been pointed out, many more reporters have been water boarded to see what it feels like than we have water boarded terrorists. If many people are willing to undergo a technique, I don’t consider it torture. If we were cutting off fingers as many countries do, I doubt ANY reporter would undergo that.
STEP 1: Provide a precise definition of TORTURE. I have not seen such a definition here!
When writing history it is effective to put yourself in the place of those about whom you are writing. The events of 9-11 were beyond all enormity and the responsibilities placed on those heading our government can perhaps only be compared to December of 1941, or March-June of 1861.
None of this excuses recent revelations any more than we can excuse FDR signing off on internment camps, or Lincoln suspending certain civil rights. But no reasonable discussion of Cheney can gloss over the events of the time. The weight on the shoulders of Bush & Cheney should be part of any analysis of their actions.
Maybe the folks sitting safely in their easy chairs should use technology to study life before & after 9-11, and what those days following 9-11 were like for us average folks. Having lived through it, I’m inclined to give Bush, Cheney, et. al., a pass
Holmes, You’ll probably vote for Warren, another know it all know nothing progressive
A very good story Ross. America used to “look up” not “live-down” to the ideals of others. Our country used to show the way.
Interesting story–my father was guarding a dozen or so German soldiers near the end of WWII. He had been ill, and finally suffered a ruptured appendix. The German soldiers got help and cared for him until he was taken away. It sounds surprising, but I am sure those soldiers felt fortunate to be in the hands of the Americans over the approaching storm of the Red Army. And, relating to yesterday’s thread, this “good guy” mode was probably one main reason why our nation-building was successful after the war. We do not have that kind of trust today, so suspicion will always win out to trust.
talk about WMDs they found 8 tons of yellow cake uranium in Iraq after the war.
” their beheading is believed to be painless.”
Must be a better quality of knife work these days. The video I saw of a beheading a few years ago sounded pretty gruesome – and painful.
Of course, one has to wonder how torture does anything to remedy that.
If I had a loved one at risk in the hands of terrorists, I would want the most effective techniques used to secure their rescue – not techniques that mirror the terrorist barbarity and ineffectiveness.
Droning is better than waterboarding, just ask the democrats. Look at the Japanese version of waterboarding it’s quite different than what we did at Gitmo, I sure those three (3) prisoners we waterboarded would have been happier being droned. This report was made up by all democrats with not one witness just to change the subject of what a crappie administration we have now,
Holmes Obama is the liar, but keep drinking the koolaid
Torture also increased U.S. troop casualties in the future. A foreign enemy is less likely to surrender peacefully to U.S. troops if they think it result in torture or Guantanamo imprisonment.
Ex: During the first Gulf War, thousands of Saddam’s troops surrendered peacefully because they believed Americans were good guys and would be treated humanely. If they had instead dug in and fought (fearing torture) it would have resulted in heavy U.S. troop casualties.
Obama and Holder have demonstrated (and Jonathan, you know and have written about it) a very dubious and self-serving approach to what is proper and what is not during the course of their regime. Citing what they think about the actions of the past administration is meaningless. And the opinion of the UN, which considers China’s view on human rights issues valid, is equally without value.
Great job on most of the rest of the piece.
It is interesting to me how many people are using the “they did it too” or “they are worse than we are”. Cheney brought up 9/11 about eight times in defense of his actions. Since when did the behavior of others determine our legal justifications?
Thanks for posting this, professor.
Thanks for that last paragraph Professor. That is the whole problem with this situation. In the future, the grunts will have to pay-up for Darth Vader and the rest of his gang’s black-hearted lack of foresight. Good point by Justice Holmes. Just another example where our Prez has once-again shrinked from responsibility. Plus, I think it needs to be pointed out again. People in the US apparently like torture–and going around the Constitution. It makes great TV. I love the new ABC promo with their latest government heroine announcing, “do you want me to follow the law, or save lives??” (or something to that extent…) No, the law doesn’t save any lives… Law is bad… torture and pain–good! Vengeance feels so good! So let’s just keep marginalizing the Constitution for those who only know life through popular culture. Plus, it keeps vindicating people like Cheney. Yikes.
One thing you can say about ISIS, they treat their
detainees well and their beheading is believed to be painless.
Cheney lied? What a shock. This man and the rest of the Bush administration involved in ordering torture should be prosecuted. Obama has shirked his responsibility on this issue for far too long but then I guess there is no corporate cash for prosecuting torture.