Bahtatboy

"Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives."

He confirmed he had authorised the use of waterboarding to extract information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaeda mastermind behind the 9/11 attack.

Mr Bush tells the paper: "Damn right!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11715577

Thin end of the wedge, or acceptable in exceptional circumstances? Doesn't matter, Civilisation's already dead (along with Cricket).

Brains1983

Definately acceptable under exceptional circumstances. If they get the wrong person for every 20 right ones, then crack on.

Dilmun

And how can you trust any information extracted through torture???If someone would even come close to my fingernails I'd tell everything they want to hear. Whether true or not.....

Brains1983

Not talking about what people will or won't say under torture, all I'm saying is that if they have a hit rate of 20 to 1, then there isn't a problem with it.

I think it's better than "please tell me".

Charismatic

It’s fine, as long as when they charge him with his crimes they can apply the same techniques to get information. Violence begets more violence and such.

Norm_uk

Indeed, under carefully controlled conditions it can provide quick and useful results.

We're not talking about the Spanish Inquisition here - we're talking about 21st century psychological and physical interrogation techniques which rarely cause any medium to long term damage...they rarely even question the wrong person these days (of course when they do the media latches onto it as an indication that the system is imperfect - as if any system is perfect to start with!).

N.

Dilmun

So waterboarding is a wonderful "21st century psychological and physical interrogation techniques which rarely cause any medium to long term damage"?

Again, how can you rely on information given under such circumstances?
Where do you draw the line?
How civilised are we, when we use such methods??

Norm_uk

I draw the line when my own people and our close allies are killed and maimed for the crime of not subscribing to an interpretation of backwards ideology.

I draw the line when cultures who aren't as advanced as mine and who haven't invented anything useful for hundreds of years start trying to dictate how we should live and behave and what we can and cannot print in our own newspapers.

Civillisation is built on blood, sweat and tears not timidity and moral relativism.

n.