Hacker News Reader

Comment by pyre | Hacker News Reader

They are also getting away with it because the torture isn't of the "strap electrodes to his genitals" variety, which most people would immediately reject. Stuff like "loud music," "putting a holy book in a toilet," or "make him think he's drowning," don't evoke the same sort of immediate reaction. If the administration were openly performing at "Inquisition" levels of torture, there would be massive public outcry.

View on HN

I fail to see the difference between "waterboarding" and "strap electrodes to his genitals" torture.

That is because you understand what waterboarding is. The general public, at least at the time, seemed to lack a proper appreciation for what it really meant.

Waterboarding is torture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUkj9pjx3H0

I think parent, grandparent, and possibly great-grandparent share that view. The point was that back when we were having these discussions this was a lot less obvious to a lot of people. Which, to a certain extent, the video you linked demonstrates - Mancow hardly would have volunteered to undergo it if he didn't underestimate its awfulness (and he said it changed his views on the subject).

On the other hand they openly talked about extreme sleep deprivation (a few hours a week for months on end) and "walling", which is where you throw someone into a wall over and over.

You have a lot more respect for the public than I do.

Actually the Spanish Inquisition used similar methods, including waterboarding [1]. Certainly some of the US prisoners have been tortured to death [2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition#Torture

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilawar_(torture_victim)

Interesting, so apparently the Spanish inquisition too started using waterboarding to avoid having to permanently harm their victims.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com