Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens Undergoes Waterboarding

Just in case the revelation that American torturers took their cues from that model of moral clarity that was the Chinese Communist regime hasn't fully convinced you that the practice is unquestionably, incontrovertibly evil, Christopher Hitchens' column in the August 2008 Vanity Fair, "Believe Me, It's Torture," ought to drive the point home. That is, if the accompanying video, available online at Vanity Fair's website, doesn't do it first.

In the video, Christopher Hitchens is brought, hooded and bound, into an austere looking storage room, and placed on a board, slightly elevated at its foot. He is instructed by the similarly masked interrogators on how to call a halt to the procedure, either through a safe word - "red" - or by releasing the "dead man's handle" - a metal object placed in each hand. A towel is placed over his face and one of the interrogators begins pouring water on Hitchens' face from an ordinary-looking milk carton. The interrogators demonstrate no more aggression that one might when watering a houseplant. In fact, the process looks so unremarkable that you begin to wonder if they aren't simply "warming Hitchens up" for something worse.

Seventeen seconds pass, and then Hitchens drops the dead man's handle. When the hood is removed, it is jarring to see how panic-stricken Hitchens looks.

In the video, Hitchens describes the experience:

They told me that when I activated the 'dead man's handle' - which is a simple process, you simply release something, let it go - I didn't do that. I practically, even though my hands were bound, I...as near as I could...I threw the thing out of my hand. I mean, I really wanted it to stop.

I could swear I shouted the code word, but I hadn't.

Everything completely goes on you when you're breathing water. You can't think about anything else.

It would be bad enough if you did have something. Suppose if they wanted to know where a relative of yours was...or a lover. You feel, "Well, I'm going to betray them now. Because this has to come to an end. I can't take this anymore." But what if you didn't have anything? What if you'd got the wrong guy? Then you would be in danger of losing your mind very quickly.

That last paragraph, I believe, is critical, especially considering the torture practices of the Chinese Communists - who we are now emulating - were designed to elicit false confessions from those who were tortured.

Attention should be paid to the aftermath of the experience as well, which Hitchens relates thusly:

As a result of this very brief experience, if I do anything that gets my heart rate up, and I'm breathing hard, panting, I have a slight panic sensation that I'm not going to be able to catch my breath again...lately I've been having this feeling of waking up feeling smothered, trying to push everything off my face.

It takes only seventeen seconds to impact the life of an innocent man.

PREVIOUSLY, ON THE HUFFINGTON POST: Former U.S. Navy Seal Kaj Larsen experienced waterboarding firsthand, and recounted the ordeal for the Huffington Post (and on CurrentTV) in a piece titled: "A Lesson For Mukasey: Why I Had Myself Water-Boarded"

Comments

[newslamp]

This is not torture. Hitchens gave his consent, so this is sadomasochism.

[totaldisbelief]

If this exercise were done to a Congress person in front of a full Congress the issue of torture would be quickly resolved.....and some POS that thinks is OK to do waterboarding to get good intel should be the test subject. (my guess is that in a very few minutes he/she would be attesting to the most fantastical things)

[totaldisbelief]

"Do it to Julia ...Do it to Julia" Winston Smith in Room101 in Orwell's 1984

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

Waterboarding isn't torture as Mr.Hitchens has without a doubt proven!No organ failure or death!Nice try though.

[CraigR]

"Organ failure" is not a prerequiste for a given action to be defined as torture, as is neither death, which is the exact opposite of what torture is intended to do. I suggest you try it yourself before making a judgement.

[dac253]

(1) "torture" means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
(2) "severe mental pain or suffering" means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from"
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and
(3) "United States" means the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealths, territories, and possessions of the United States.

U.S. Code Title 18 > Part I > Chapter 113C § 2340

Your definition of torture does not match the United States' definition of torture.

Nice try though ;)

[evekendall]

Pulling one's fingernails out with pliers doesn't cause organ failure or death, either. . . but it is torture. Nice try, though. God save us from people like you.

[revwilliam]

In the past I have often found Mr. Hitchens an insufferable bore,
but I must say I have developed a certain respect for the man.

He went and put his money where his mouth is.
And he was willing to learn something new.

Neither can be said for the rest of those cowardly chickenhawks on the rightwing.

[DigitalDave]

It's a start. Now let's see Hitchens reaction to waterboarding at the hands of people that hate him so profoundly that they are willing to kill him to get what they want, and they have PROOF.

Several dozen people -- that we know of -- have died at the hands of our interrogators. I presume they would boast of these deaths to their victims in order to heighten their fear before the process even begins.

[TommyMcCarthy]

It must have been hard to resist the impulse to go ahead and drown him..................er...................sorry..........................tm

[Argente]

Last year in Vanity Fair, Hitch wrote an account of his makeover, including the dreaded Brazilian boy's bikini was ("sack, back, and crack") and quitting the smokes for two whole days. I wonder which he thinks was the more tortuous.

[McPander]

There is only one purpose in torture. It is to instill fear int he populace as a whole. It is the reason that mobsters do it and the reason that governments do it.

It doesn't work to get real intelligence and only works to get false confessions.

[littleblackcat]

Has anyone else noticed that bush, cheney, rumsfeld, rove, and the rest of the fools responsible for this mess in Iraq are too cowardly to undergo waterboarding? Might be something for mccain to think about, too. He wants everyone to consider him a "hero" just because he survived a POW camp so he should have the courage needed to back up his claims that waterboarding isn't torture. He voted to continue these "enhanced interrogation techniques" (read "torture") so he should show he has the stuff to prove what he is promoting isn't torture. I respect his service especially in view of the tail-between-the-legs behavior of bush and cheney and feel sorry for the fact that he spent time in the "Hanoi Hilton" but he isn't the only one by a long shot. I support General Clark's summation of the fact that mccain is a former POW does not make him qualified to be president, especially since the nation has a horrific job in front of it to get back on track if we are to avoid Japan or China taking us over or a civil war.

[Argente]

The people you mention are cowardly fools because they do not want to undergo waterboarding? How would you characterize someone who wants to be waterboarded - brave and brilliant, but misunderstood?

[totaldisbelief]

morbidly inquisitive ?????

[totaldisbelief]

Based on McCain's POW experience, he more than anybody should be against torture and ill treatment of prisoners. At the very least he should know people will say ANYTHING to stop the abuse.
This is just one more thing about him that I dislike. He's made a career out of his POW episode; I owe him nothing.

[Leatherhelmet]

Yet waterboarding is used only in extreme circumstances and it made Khalid Sheikh Mohammed cooperate -- with what turned out to be truthful information.

He didn't die and the information he gave led to lives saved.

[Barky]

Wonder if Hitchens took out xtra insurance. Did anyone notice what great shape he's in? He should concentrate on situps rather than waterboarding.

[YellowPanties]

Um... do you have a point? Hitchens underwent waterboarding torture. Some say it isn't torture and his own ordeal says otherwise.

Maybe you shouldn't obsess over Hitchens body, he's just not that into you.

[truthynesslover]

Hey if they die your doing it wrong!

[DKLA]

Mr. Hitchens, ISAY "BRAVO" FOR YOU, stepping into life as most Americans refuse to see it.
THANK YOU FOR RISKING YOUR LIFE TO EDUCATE THE STOOOPID MASSES, the ones that obviously elected these 2 crooks, WORSE THAN NIXON!!
START THE TELEVISED TRIALS!! it's too late to impeach them.

[RobinL]

Before you extol Christopher Hitchens too much, do remember that he was very pro-War for a long time. I'm delighted to know that this intelligent man has changed his mind---and undergone torture to become more empathetic to those who've had it inflicted on them. But it's been a process for him. He didn't come out of the box like that.

[totaldisbelief]

Well at least he's into the "process" unlike every Neocon and most of the GOP (I could do the names list here but there are too many of them and you already know who they are.

[truthynesslover]

Maybe he should have his house bombed and family killed to see what its like to live in a war zone!What an idiot!P.S.I just stuck a fork in my eye to see if it hurts.It does!OUCH!

[Querent]

It only hurts if you jab yourself in THAT eye. Try the other eye. it won't hurt, I promise.

[davidpeace]

Those that support waterboarding, or any other torture, should be willing to undergo it first before they present us detractors with the time bomb scenario. Somewhere else, it was said, that torture is not designed to get information, but instead to make a person betray their principles, themselves, to humiliate.

[BlueZoo]

I don't need to go down to the local fire department and have them set me alight to know how much it would hurt! Hitchens is an idiot and typical MSM always looking for the sensational, rather than the underlying serious consequences and facts.

[DKLA]

WELL SAID!, you must not be a "ditto-head". Able to think for yourself, BRAVO!,You may need to speak up soon, if they rig another presidential election.

[YellowPanties]

Except boneheads like you argue it is NOT torture. By doing it himself, Hitchens can incontrovertibly attest that it IS torture.

Maybe you should have the fire department set you alight, just to be sure...