After 5 Yrs Of Torture, McCain Gave In & Agreed To A False Confession...

[kpete]

The Torturing Company We Keep

By Michael Winship
July 25, 2008


At one point during the five and a half years John McCain spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, he was tortured and beaten so badly he tried to kill himself.

After four days of this brutality, he gave in and agreed to make a false confession, telling lies to end the unbearable pain.

Later, he would write, “I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.”

................

You will know us by the company we keep. The burners of witches and the medieval masters of thumbscrews and Iron Maidens, the interrogators of the Spanish Inquisition, the North Vietnamese soldiers who beat John McCain and his fellow American prisoners of war into false confessions.

We have joined their ranks.

In the almost seven years since 9/11, we have countered terror not only with vigilance and war but fear, imprisonment without due process and yes, torture.

Torture is no more about learning the truth than rape is about sex. Both are about the violent abuse of power.

more at:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/072508a.html

[bonito]

1. K&R!

[elehhhhna]

26. He was coerced into making propaganda reels for them! Which are now "classified".

[babylonsister]

2. "Both are about the violent abuse of power." Yes, and done in our names.

McCain condones it. I have no words.

[az chela]

3. His tactics and lies now take away any respect i ever had for him

Now he is just another bush lover that is now betraying this country

[ColbertWatcher]

4. And negotiations set him free.

It seems Admiral McCombover is wrong on every point about the one thing he can't stop telling everyone he doesn't want to talk about.

[AZ Criminal JD]

18. Actually the massive Christmas bombing in 1972 set him free.

That forced the North to negotiate seriously and the war ended a month later.

[ColbertWatcher]

29. "That forced the North to negotiate..." Exactly. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

5. A tortured man will say anything to stop the agony

And that INCLUDES the agony of the waterboard.

That's why the "old" CIA stopped depending on intelligence obtained by torture alone.

It. Doesn't. Work.

[kpete]

27. as would

many of us, and then when they say they will threaten family members - most of us would say anything, mho, kp

[pennylane100]

6. It is hard to sympathise with someone who condones torture.

It is especially bad when that person has been tortured and knows how it feels.

[NNN0LHI]

7. This is the kind of confessions by torture that Rethugs like Joe Scarborough consider a success

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Scarborough_90_of_Americans_would_approve_1019.html

"You know, that's the debate. Is waterboarding torture?" he asked. "I don't want the United States to engage in the type of torture that John McCain had to endure."

Scarborough said that even though McCain was a staunch opponent of torture, he pointed out that that torture had in fact "worked" on the senator.

[UTUSN]

8. So. What did he LEARN?!1 (He asks everybody else this question.) n/t

[Mnemosyne]

9. The "Songbird of North Vietnam" supports torture?

Who'd of thunk...

[spanone]

10. shouldn't he of all people know torture doesn't work....

hip oh crit

[norepubsin08]

11. McCain's a traiter and a wuss

Shouldn't even be in the Senate...it was treason what he did. How ungrateful..here the US gave him a several years vacation and he turns around and bites the hand that feeds him and his family? McCain was no hero...he was a dumbass hot shot pilot that wasted the US's money and put other military personnel at risk! FUCK HIM!!!!

[ConsAreLiars]

12. Not "After 5 Yrs." As the article says, he signed after 4 days. (nt)

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

13. I'm so confused. Didn't McCain actually sponsor an anti-torture bill?

:shrug:

[Disturbed]

14. Was it really a "false" confession?

What did he confess to?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

16. Uh,...didn't he sponsor a bill against torture? That's my question.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

15. The article says after FOUR DAYS of brutality,...he gave in. I'm confused.

But, frankly,...ANY TORTURE is criminal. I would think he would grasp that AND I thought he sponsored legislation strictly against it.

[JeanGrey]

17. And I thought tortue doesn't work?

[TahitiNut]

19. And the fact that we continue to permit the torturers to run free committing their crimes ....

... in our name makes us a nation of criminals and cowards undeserving of self-governance.

[Usrename]

20. Actually, McCain wasn't really tortured.

He was exposed to some harsh interrogation. It was more like a fraternity prank.

[briv1016]

21. The man has permanent nerve damage.

I'm not supporting him but the North Vietnamese were not doing fraternity hazing. The fact that he supports it now is horrendous but I'm not going to get angry at the guy for cracking under torture. Unless you've been there you have no idea.

[norepubsin08]

22. McCain can go fuck himself

He of all people should know better than to support torture, what a phony asshole bastard. I hope he chokes on his own tongue while he's going around the country spreading his bullshit!

[NNN0LHI]

23. You said it better than I could have

[elehhhhna]

25. Welcome to DU!

[elehhhhna]

24. he didn't suport it until this year. his very last principle --poof!--gone.

[CJCRANE]

28. The post is merely echoing what the RW pundits

said about Abu Ghraib. It's a sarcastic way of showing how cruel that point of view is.

[JNelson6563]

30. K&R

:kick: