The headline of a Dec. 10 Newsmax articles read, “Waterboarding Is Not Torture.” The former article cites; The latter article rehashes Newsmax’s Ronald Kessler’s claims that “Torture is normally defined as the infliction of severe pain, and while waterboarding induces fear because it simulates drowning, it does not inflict pain” — a claim that has been debunked — and that “Waterboarding was used only when the CIA believed a second wave of terrorist attacks was imminent” and “the information they ultimately provided helped stave off attacks that could have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people” — a questionable claim, as we also noted.
This article was juxtaposed in Newsmax’s “Inside Cover” section by a wire article in which an interrogator of a suspect who was waterboarded called the technique torture.
So, who are you going to believe? A Bush fluffer who has an interest in downplaying waterboarding, or the guy who actually did the deed?