Rep. Bachmann: You are flat out wrong

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN): Further off the reservation on torture issue.

Story [click here].

I posted this at the story site:

Rep. Bachmann and anyone else like her who believes that waterboarding is not torture, or just an “enhanced” interrogation technique, or that it's okay since our troops under go it, too, are in a word: insane. Here's why.

1. Waterboarding is torture and has been for decades. We have prosecuted people for carrying conducting it and that included prosecution after WWII and in VN.

2. There is no such thing as an “enhanced” interrogation technique except in the minds of those peddling the myth.

3. Our troops do not undergo waterboarding as many try to explain the way they do to prop up their weak argument.

Some of our troops (select pilots, flight crew members; some special ops personnel, and those who are apt to operate in units behind enemy lines and face capture more so than average combat soldiers) face torture and waterboard and other things as part of the SERE training program. That program is explained this way:

Survive (the crash or ambush, for example); Evade (the enemy as long as possible); Resist (resist interrogation as long as possible, and that may include harsh punishment); and Escape (whenever possible).

I know the rules. I was a Marine interrogator and DOD interrogator for nearly 12 years later in my career. At one point I used to teach the Resist portion to show how harsh, or as nearly harsh potential enemy interrogation could be. We took many of our troops to the edge, but we never harmed anyone in the process.

Rep. Bachmann is flat out wrong and so is anyone else who thinks that same way.

Bottom Line: Professional Interrogators, real professional interrogators, know the rules and follow the law. Those GOP candidates for president like Bachmann and several others who support waterboarding and claim it is not torture are not ready for the office, let ready to be the CINC.