WATERBOARD ALL THOSE SAYING IT IS NOT TORTURE

Let's have a full and open investigation of how George Bush and Dick Cheney instituted a policy of torture on captives believed to be Qaeda supporters.

Recall that the Inquisition lasted about 400 years in Europe from about 1300 to 1700 when the leaders of the French Enlightenment exposed it and its shameful practices of torture to daylight.

Some of the very same methods used by churchmen in the Inquisition to extract confessions of devil worship and witchcraft show up in what we know about Bush and Cheney's policy of "harsh interrogation methods." Trial by water is a good example. Water has long been used to separate the good from the evil. Suspected thieves and robbers were thrown into the water in 13th Centrury England; if their hair stayed dry, they were exonerated. Officials poured water down the throats of suspects. Most confessed within a few seconds. Of course, even after receiving church absolution, these unfortunates were then taken and burned at the stake in the city center.

Of course water was not the only method. Churchmen used hot coals and the wrack to test the innocence of suspected heretics. Surely God would protect them if pure and innocent. Most were found to be allied with Satan.

Those who claim waterboarding is not torture should watch the video of Christopher Hitchens being recently waterboarded. Hitchens volunteered. He lasted about 20 seconds before he could not take any more. Better yet, defenders of waterboarding - Hannity, Thiessen, Cheney, Rice, Addington, Tenet, et al. - we should waterboard all of them and not stop unless they make a full and complete confession. First let's accuse them of (take your pick): supporting Al Qaeda, practicing witchcraft, planning to detonate a dirty bomb in NYC, being in consort with Satan, practicing socialism, or whatever. Let's see how much water they can stand before they confess.

LET'S SUBJECT DICK CHENEY TO WATERBOARDING

Marc Thiessen gives us in today's The Washington Post a specious reason supporting his assertion that Obama was wrong to release the torture memos: Al Qaeda will use this information to train its operatives to resist questioning and withhold information on planned attacks. (Thiessen by the way is a former speech writer for George W. Bush.)

Oh yeah! Sure! Thiessen's assertion does not pass the laugh test. Al Qaeda is going to train its soldiers to overcome waterboarding? Or being stuffed in a black box together with biting insects? How about training for loss of sleep for seven days? Or being doused with cold water? These Al Qaeda guys sure are tough and made of steel.

I have a good suggestion. Let's waterboard Thiessen and his fellow torture-defending Bush officials, including Dick Cheney, and find out if they have any secrets to reveal. Perhaps Thiessen and Cheney are really Al Qaeda operatives and are planning an attack against some city in the United States.

If they are innocent, well we will soon know. But let's stop the waterboarding or other torture only if and when they admit their terrorist guilt.