Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for May 22, 2009

Hazard is practically rephrasing my “some still refuse to call torture” rant from yesterday. (Trudeau steals from the same source I do, actual history.)

actually your interrogation techniques were homemade, and in fact exported to other countries across south america for instance.

…torture!?!I had to watch American Idol butcher Freddie Mercury….

You COULD have turned it off, opened a beer and read a good book…

Lil’ Duke’s in training.

Screw torture, people don’t like it. (Gee, who’da thunk)

There should be one prerequisite for those rendering EIT, have it done to them first.

“There should be one prerequisite for those rendering EIT, have it done to them first.”

I thought that was already SOP.

“The GOLD is hidden in FORT KNOX, and the entry password is “SUCKAHHH”.

“HOW MANY H’s, HERSHEY BAR???”

“Three, like Hubert H. Humphrey “…….. (I’m pleased as PUNCH — OOOOOOFF!!!)

Nemesys-

Torture during the Spanish Inquisition was designed to specifically to coerce a confession.

That’s because guilt was established by the initial accusation. The guilty were then tortured to obtain a confession, which would establish whether the punishment was death or relatively lenient disfigurement.

Which explains why detainees weren’t granted trials - they were presumed guilty and then coerced into “confession.”

longtimecomicsfan,

What you’re describing was laid out in a papal decree entitled the Malleus Maleficarum, which spread far beyond the Spanish Inquisition, but what you’re saying is essentially correct. However, interogators were also charged with discovering the names of other friends and familiy members whom the subject participated with in whatever crimes they were accused of participating in. There’s some debate today regarding the “witchcraft” folks were accused of, since many people -particulalrly women - did actually practice handed-down pagan folk medicine traditions that the church was trying to root out and stamp out.

Was it effective? Read your history.

Actually, the Spanish Inquisition and witch trials were far less about folk medicine and more about persecuting the Jews and land grabs from widows with a side order of “the nail that sticks up will be hammered down.” Far more men died during the witch hysteria than people realize because too many people don’t read their history.

And Nemesys, if you think waterboarding is the equivalent of the comfy chair, I dare you to undergo the procedure and tell us ALL about it.

A partially born baby has its brains sucked out because the mother doesn’t want it. Torture or???

Er, SERE techniques are wimpy. If thousands of American soldiers can get through it without physical after effects, it ain’t that much. The torture used during the Cold War was actual torture—you’d be lucky to live. However, there’s never been scientific studies comparing regular interrogation techniques (often not even used by military interrogaters) and torture interrogation with people who actually had reason to resist. MK-Ultra was very much about studying torture techniques, but only on regular American citizens, and no comparison was used.