Lieberman Supports Waterboarding: 'It's Not Like Using Hot Coals'

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman reluctantly acknowledged Thursday that he does not believe waterboarding is torture, but believes the interrogation technique should be available only under the most extreme circumstances.

Lieberman was one of 45 senators who voted Wednesday in opposition to a bill that would limit the CIA to the 19 interrogation techniques outlined in the Army field manual. That manual prohibits waterboarding, a method where detainees typically are strapped to a bench and have water poured into their mouth and nose making them feel as if they will drown.

The Senate passed the measure. [...]

"You want to be able to use emergency tech to try to get the information out of that person," Lieberman said. Of course, Lieberman believes such authority has limits. He does not believe the president could authorize having hot coals pressed on someone's flesh to obtain that information.

The difference, he said, is that waterboarding is mostly psychological and there is no permanent physical damage. "It is not like putting burning coals on people's bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological," Lieberman said. Lieberman said that his position on waterboarding differs from that of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who he has endorsed as a presidential candidate. As a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam, McCain was tortured. McCain, he said, believes waterboarding is torture.

Comments

[ConcernedAmerican]

Real astute observation....burning someone is not like drowning them. What a freakin genious sellout boy is....

[steve12]

I wonder how Lieberman's renewed views on torture would correspond with his orthodox jewish practice. From what I have read, the torah explicitly forbids torture.

It is unfortunate that what was such a great man and a fighter for civil rights has succumbed to his hatred for his old party and his apparent love affair with his new one.

[ProudNeoCon]

What does it have to do with his hate for Dems? If you notice, not all Reps support waterboarding...

[Chandidevi]

What kind of a man is this? Didn't his people go through the holocaust?

[EdWhite1]

Well if Mr Lieberman believes its not so bad perhaps he and the others who support waterboarding should undergo the ordeal (without having it softened for them) and see if they still will believe it's not torture afterwards.

[ProudNeoCon]

Done that - still support it...

[Village]

Torture scars the soul for life.

[scrzbill]

Why didn't Joe come out as a repub when he was running for the senate? He is just like Feinstein of Ca who votes likes she is a repub. They both know they will not run again.

[ZsaZsa]

Joe Lieberman, today's WORST...PERSON...IN THE WOOOORRRRLLLLDDD!!!

[4Hope]

Has anybody asked him about his comments? Has anyone told him how shocking his comments are?He needs to be interviewed about this - maybe he was misquoted? it can't be true...

[apresdeluge]

Is this the same Joe Lieberman who Obama supported in his "independent" re-election campaign? Is this the same Joe Lieberman who Obama called his mentor in the Senate? Well, well, well.

[GeoLee]

Yeah, scary, isn't it?

[emjay1954]

In my capacity as a lobbyist for the Hot Coal Producers Association, I hope to convince Senator Lieberman that his exclusionary approach to our fine product is unwarranted and unwise. American manufacturers continue to make the world's finest hot coals and hot coal accessories, and these in turn result in superior information gathering yields compared with hydraulic-based enhanced interrogation technique.

[faretheewell]

I'm sure glad he is no longer a Democrat.

[leonardchilds]

Joe is absolutely correct...it is psychological and not life threatening...designed to scare the jihad out of rat bastard terrorists.

The eternal question is...if we believed that a terrorist had information that would save the life of YOUR WIFE/HUSBAND or CHILD...would you agree to waterboarding...or would you let your loved ones die...short of using waterboarding?

[anelder]

The problem with this scenario is, unlike the TV show 24 hours, things never boil down to the - in one hour a calamity will occur" so we have no choice but to "be bad". Sort of like the old axiom of what would you do if it was the child of the mother's life at birth. They used to hang that one around the neck of Catholicism. Upon a look see into the matter it becomes evident the occasion does not happen.

The there's the real fact. Torture has never been shown to elicit the truth. Scare me enough I'll say to anything you ask.

[Irons]

Joe "the Pig" Leiberman

[TheProf]

Lieberman is such a toady. If I wanted to create a comic character in a novel, one who embodies all that is stupid, he would be my model.

[Cid]

Anyone in our government that wants to allow any form of torture should have to submit themselves to it first.

[TheWesternBreed]

What a maroon. All the most successful tortures that the NKVD (Soviet ancestor of the KGB) used in the terrible old days were mostly "psychological" and "left no marks"--like the "conveyor belt" system in which relays of interrogators kept prisoners awake for days and days (and nights and nights), until they were so dazed they would have confessed to being Satan; the little game of having to stand on tiptoes against a wall (for many hours); the "hot room" and "cold room" which were just what they sound like; keeping a man half-starved for weeks and then offering him a beautifully prepared meal (just cooperate and you can eat!), and so on, and so on. All these games and more are in THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO. And Joe Lieberman is a whiny, degenerate, son of a bitch.

[etc]

As a result, millions of innocent were signing death sentences to millions of other innocent.