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.
I’ m baaaack! 🙂
Inga said …
Haz, your article spoke of rendition. Not water-boarding. Also the point #4 states that Clinton allowed rendition only to countries that would not torture … Haz, believe I understand rendition far better than you
Never mind that “rendition” is used to provide plausible deniability for acts they can disclaim responsibility for in the future. What other reason for rendition than to avoid the laws applying to captured people, POW or otherwise?
Presidents, neither Clinton nor Bush, have direct control over the actions and procedures taken by nations that accept rendition.
Breaking my hesitance to speak to the subject of “torture” per se… I find the simple fact rendition was used possibly indicates knowledge of probable malfeasance in rendition by the leadership who arranged it. I’d still not prosecute anyone on the matter as reported by the Senate.
It bothers me that I can agree with rafflaw and still find disagreement with him…mainly over the presumed cut & dried application of the law for the law’s sake and a pristine morality. That is a nbole goal and one I cannot fault on its own merits. That may be because I know of, maybe was part of, things I am not proud of to this day. Beyond that, I say nothing…as I’ve repeatedly said, I am biased and conflicted on the subject of actions taken in war, including asymmetrical war. I can’t accuse others of dong what seemed necessary at the time, right or wrong, save blatantly egregious intentional (malicious) wrong…for no good reason that they or anyone else determined. Nothing I know of or experienced fits that latter category. I admit I have “read” about such events, but I was never near anyone who did so.
Jim22, they’re also using our torture as a recruitment tool. Very effective.
Jim22, they’re water boarding them before the beheadings.
Myr, We could only wish that terrorists would use these techniques vs their G.C. following decapitations.
Olly,
I loved 24, but that’s not reality. I wonder how you’ll feel when these same techniques are used on our soldiers. What we did was sadistic and against our very laws. It’s a total repudiation of the UN Convention Against Torture that Reagan negotiated and signed. It’s also a repudiation of our WW2 heritage.
And we did this for what? Most of our fellow Americans are cowards. So ready to toss away the Constitution because they are afraid.
Bill, Sorry, you get the idiot award.
http://youtu.be/8fszTGFL2Tc
Professor Turley starts at the 2:54 point. Wow what a “kumbaya a patti cake liberal”.
Simply moronic. At this stage, for anyone to still carry the torch for Gruber deserves public ridicule. That partisan crap is just laughable.
KAREN S
Asking how 9/11 could have been prevented is like asking how “we” could have prevented the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The. U.S. government did those things. They could NOT have been stopped – anymore than the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Japan. or Germany.
Only a radical change – throwing out right-wing Senators and Congressmen, and replacing them with leaders who are beholden to all of the PEOPLE in our country, and not just the 1 % and their no-nothing cheerleaders like some here on this site. Spinner Ellie should be kept for amusement purposes.
Bill McWilliams – there were several ways the Vietnam War could have been stopped before it started. Same with WWII. You really do not have a sense of history, do you?
If that’s what it means to you Myr, then you’ve lost all objectivity.
Myr, would you allow the death of many innocents (including your own) happen so you can say at least we didn’t torture the terrorists?
For me it means it should not be used unless every other legal option has been exhausted and the threat still exists.
I’ll say it again, if God forbid terrorists take a school in Berkeley, Madison, LA or any liberal city, those liberals will be calling for beheadings. Of course, it would have to be a private school, they don’t send their kids to publics.
Being “against torture theoretically” means you’re against it when it happens to Americans, but for it when we’re the torturers.
“I am against torture theoretically. And yet, I admit that I would do anything to save my family.”
Karen,
That has been my point in the various torture threads. Everyone here would do exactly the same thing, yet they want to portray themselves above that sort of thing.
I want my government to do everything necessary WITHIN the rule of law to keep our country secure. And I want them to keep EVERYTHING on the table should circumstances warrant their use. I want our enemy to know that we will respect international law but that we will not be deterred from using all means necessary for our nations security. A full after-action review should be conducted to determine if all lawful options were considered before alternative actions were taken. Prosecutions should be limited to outright abuse of the process.
Professor Turley is a “kumbaya patti cake liberal”? Gee, I wonder if he knows that? 😯
Aridog – you sound just like my Dad on the UN. I think he would like you. 🙂
Darren makes a good point, and his scenario has been explored hundreds, if not thousands of times. The painfulness of the 9-11 event is the pathetic and total breakdown of the service of government. It is truly an example of truth stranger than fiction. If you tried to sell a movie about the agencies in government involved. Isn’t the airline liable, it was their plane? 9-11 means a breakdown and failure of our system of government as much as it means we were attacked. The massive size of the government can’t satisfy the preamble of the Constitution? We faced a cold war with the real possibility of destruction of the entire planet. On 9-11 we were taken down with box cutters. Will fishing line be the next weapon that sets us all soul searching??
Bill believes the Confederacy is still holding Union soldiers, that the moon landing was fake, and the curveball is an optical illusion. Oh, and DUI should not be illegal unless someone is injured.
Msjette:
If my kid was in danger, or a nuclear bomb attack was coming, I would absolutely get Medieval if I had to.
I am against torture theoretically. And yet, I admit that I would do anything to save my family. I also think it’s wrong to equate what we did at Gitmo with what happened at concentration camps or Japanese POW camps. We had medical staff on hand, made compensations for injuries suffered in capture, and limited the length of time to far below what was allowed.
I think it’s good to have a national conversation on how far we could and should go, and under what circumstances.
This whole thing smells like a political stunt to get people to forget why the Dems lost so badly at the polls.
Bill McWilliams: Are there still Americans MIA i.e. being held prisoner in Vietnam? Are there any who are willfully staying there? Let us know, what you know. This is why we are here on the blog and not watching CNN right now.
@Karen S
“It takes a kind of depravity for which there is no cure to deliberately murder a child, especially in the name of their god. And to burn female teachers alive, just because they dared to educate girls is unbelievably savage.”
Would you water-board any of these perps to find out what school they were going to bomb next?
I sure as heck would, in a New York second! I’m so freaking tired of liberals judging Cheney or Bush on war crimes when in fact these radical jihadist ragheads killed 3000 people of all nationalities and destroyed many American buildings and costing us 100’s of millions of dollars to rebuild. There was threat to attack more and kill more. They had to do what they had to do, to save lives. The MAJORITY of Americans approve of water-boarding to save American lives and I’m one of them. I could care less what these kumbaya liberals think and their patti-cake attitude towards our enemies.