Is this torture?
 

This is the CIA's definition of waterboarding:

• "The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt."

link

Is this torture? Vote in the poll, and add comments and explanation if you like.

Is this torture?
 

Which one do I click if I love me?

Is this torture?
 

It's not even fucking close.

Is this torture?
 

Sounds like foreplay to me.

Is this torture?
 

How does the prisoner breathe with the cellophane over the face?

Is this torture?
 

Is this torture?

http://www.lawtalkers.com/forums/sho...&pagenumber=48

Is this torture?
 

Can I change my vote?

Is this torture?
 

How can anyone say it's torture based solely on the descriptions provided to us by anti-war advocates?

Irene Cara got waterboarded in Flashdance and seemed to do alright . . .

Is this torture?
 

That was waterchaired. Totally different. And she got tips.

Is this torture?
 

Point of order. I am pretty sure Irene Cara only sang the theme song to Flashdance, and that maybe Jennifer Beals is the one who got water-somethinged.

Is this torture?
 

Or her body double.

eta: Heh. Eat my dust, Burger.

Is this torture?
 

Correction noted. Although it may have been the body-double who got watered, since Beals didn't do much of the dancing.

Is this torture?
 

I thought Irene Cara sang the song to Fame! (I'm gonna live forever). She was Flashdance too? Ho.

Is this torture?
 

hard to say.

http://www.film.org.pl/images2/shrek2_adi/92.jpg

and suck it--I was googling for images.

Is this torture?
 

Without question, torture.

Is this torture?
 

I think I have those boots.

Is this torture?
 

Is that Beals or JHo in her homage music video?

Is this torture?
 

Her feet seem to be below her head and there doesn't seem to be any cellophane involved.

That was for the benefit of the people remembering seeing the shirt plastered to her lithe body and her full, erect-nippled breasts and not really looking at the picture.

Is this torture?
 

who changed my vote?

Ty or Penske--who's playing Katherine Harris today?

Is this torture?
 

No. Torture would be to convince someone that he has died and gone to heaven. And that Allah gyped him out of 70 of the 72 "virgins. " And that the only two Allah could find was the two the decedent was locked in a room with: Paigow and patentpara.

Is this torture?
 

Who said anything about who the prisoner is?

Is this torture?
 

There were twice as many votes in the "Who Likes Shape Shifter?" poll. Just sayin'.

Is this torture?
 

I don't get it. If you put cellophane on your head and pour water on it, how does that "unavoidably" cause a gag reflex? Unless the cellophane is stuck in my mouth, I am so not going to gag.

Pussies.

Or maybe I don't have a strong gag reflex.


(Yeah, yeah, "How YOU doing")

Is this torture?
 

We used to think it was torture:

• A Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, was tried in 1947 for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II, and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. [2] The charges against Asano included other abuses of prisoners. [1]
  
  On the issue of waterboarding, the United States charged Yukio Asano, a Japanese officer on May 1 to 28, 1947, with war crimes. The offenses were recounted by John Henry Burton, a civilian victim: After taking me down into the hallway they laid me out on a stretcher and strapped me on. The stretcher was then stood on end with my head almost touching the floor and my feet in the air. They then began pouring water over my face and at times it was impossible for me to breathe without sucking in water. The torture continued and continued. Yukio Asano was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor. [2] (p.10378)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding

Is this torture?
 

Then we invented cellophane, which sort of changed the character of the whole thing, no?

Is this torture?
 

Indeed. Greater effect with less water.

Is this torture?
 

It seems to be the difference between "answer, or I pull your nails out", and "answer, or I show you pictures of people having their nails pulled out."

One's torture. The other's sort of like an Alec Baldwin movie.

Is this torture?
 

I don't get this debate. It's a trick. They don't lose fingernails. They aren't starved. They aren't deprived of sleep for days. They are tricked into thinking they are drowning, but they aren't. Kind of like when the police tell a suspect that their accomplice has ratted them out, so they turn on the guy. Ha ha, gotcha.

Is this torture?
 

It damages their self-esteem, and makes them think that our society doesn't value their contribution to humanity. Hence, it must be torture.

Is this torture?
 

Right. And then they'll never be able to do trig.

Is this torture?
 

Not in the least. Where's the physical harm? So the guy gets the shit scared out of him. Caveat fucking emptor. Perhaps he'll think twice before he joins another jihadist movement.

Is this torture?
 

I can think of numerous things that don't cause lasting physical harm that would probably be more widely considered torture. We could drill teeth. As long as we fill them up, where's the harm? Or we could strategically apply electrical shocks to some of the body's more sensitive areas. As long as there's no lasting harm, what's the big deal?

The point of torture is not to harm the subject, but to produce pain and fear. As someone who almost drowned (my ankle got tangled up in a ski rope and the driver of the boat didn't know I was back there), I can assure you that the feeling of having water forced into your nose and mouth while being unable to breath is not merely uncomfortable, it is incredibly painful, not comparable in any way to simply holding your breath underwater for as long as you can (which is what I believe many of you imagine the feeling to be). The panic it induces is overwhelming. Given my choice, I'd rather have my fingernails pulled or my teeth drilled, and yet people regard these practices as clearly torture. Given the objectives of torture and the reasons for its prohibition, I don't see the "lasting physical harm" distinction.

Is this torture?
 

I'm pretty sure that when the police do that, they don't cut off your breathing in the process. Could be wrong, though.

Is this torture?
 

I was once told by the Federales that my companions had told him that all the stuff in the truck was mine. It cut my breathing off almost entirely for several minutes.

(He was lying.)

Is this torture?
 

When you found out they were lying, did you bestow flowers and sweets upon the Federales?

Is this torture?
 

Well, we did bestow some commodities upon them, but certainly not quite in the grateful spirit that sweets and flowers imply.

Is this torture?
 

Schools ought to implement waterboarding.

Is this torture?
 

I agree, but I suspect that the teachers' contracts will protect them from it.

Is this torture?
 

The problem with your argument is that someone who is waterboarded does not have water "forced into [their] nose and mouth while being unable to breath."

As for fear, if it is equivocated with torture, then every standard police/DA technique designed to say, in essence, "Confess or you will spend more time in prison" is torture, because they are all based on the fear of doing (more) time i.e. plea bargaining = torture.

Is this torture?
 

http://www.current.tv/video/?id=13462474

Sure looks like torture to me.

There is a difference between fear of prison time and fear of imminent death.