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

[PierreLeClerke]

Covert Action 101:

Any Operation is considered compromised and is duly aborted when any operative with knowledge of said operation is unaccounted for beyond prearranged time checkpoints.

All persons in the field of intel gathering know, no actionable intel can be gleamed from any person in custody beyond 2 hours. It's just that simple. This is the age of instant communications via several means. Wake up America, your leadership is sadistic at best and your naive lack of understanding in this area has allowed you to compromise your most fundamental ideals of basic human rights.
When you have consented by your silence in these crimes, you become an accomplice.

Do you think non Americans are less human than you, not deserving of the same considerations granted you?

Justify your actions or lack thereof before your maker.

[caferide]

Though I completely agree with you that the President of this country absolutely lied when he claimed that "America doesn't torture", and he should be held criminally liable in court, I don't agree that this exercise was useless. Due to the fact that this country is filled with many a$$holes and idiots, it's never a bad idea for a writer who is somewhat conservative to go through this process and relay his experiences. If he can convince just a few people that we DID infact torture prisoners, then it will have been worth it!

[NotWaldo]

Hitchens writes for VANITY. How appropriate !

That little exercise was useless. Anyone with a brain knows that waterboarding is TORTURE. The technique is the equivalent of forced suffocation by pouring water in a person's breathing passages.

When the president of the United States says "we do not torture", HE LIES !

[kinnycut]

True! Anybody with a nickel worth of sense knows that "waterboarding" is torture, and anybody would admit to, or say anything to get it to stop if it were being done to them. This would make any information obtained through it's use at least suspect. Hitchens has a flair for making a point and driving it home. Only he would go this far for a little extra fodder for a future story or article.

[LisainNYC]

I guess Hitchens thought this was the perfect chaser to having his balls waxed.

[BlueBoomer]

OOWWW!

[DKLA]

Do you know him well! Is he just another puffy-little-Rove-like creature?, too angry to offer/experience compassion for other human beings. Pure Evil, like Cheney?
Maybe being waterboarded will open his eyes to his overt ignorance.
ALTHOUGH, I believe his perspective on the evils of organized religion is pretty accurate.
Good for you Mr. Hitchens!! Can you get any of your Neo-con friends to try it too? Please!
They are destroying our country.

[ms.understood]

Don't really have to know him personally to know what my opinion is about this man's rhetoric. Hopefully after being waterboarded, his eyes will be open to his hateful behavior. And to be quite honest, organized religion isn't the problem; the problem is the leadership of the orgainized religious zealots and their brainwashed followers, who have some responsibility in the matter being that they don't read the bible and attempt to ensure that they are not being fed crap.

[ms.understood]

I usually don't wish death on anyone, but I don't think we would me at much of a loss with his.

[Vinca]

I don't think we should SHUT DOWN GITMO, WE CAN JUST HAVE OVERSIGHT

[somekid1234]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/

[wilburr0g]

Hitchens looks like that whenever he's gone without a shot of whiskey for more than 2 hours.

[AzRealProgressive]

If a suspected terrorist was captured, and he/she had been identified as having information that may prevent the deaths of thousands of innocents, and that information would stop that attack I would personally :

Waterboard him/her, his kids, family and his dog, if I thought it would release the information.

How would you explain to the families of people that dies because you were a nice guy, and their families had to die because you objected to whatever means necessary to gain the information.

BAMN, By Any Means Necessary, a bunch opposed to ending affirmative action. For that, they will do anything necessary.

What is the author's point?

[Tulka2]

Hold this hot thought in your mind for one moment, okay? Don't be afraid this will not contaiminate you. Relax, here it comes:

It has been proved again and again, from the Inquisiition through the Nazis, the Japanese, the Chinese, and by our very own lab at Gitmo, my friend, TORTURE DOES NOT WORK AS A WAY OF OBTAINING INFORMATION. Sorry for "yelling", if there were italics i would use them for emphasis.

Breath. Absorb. The above is not an opinion. People who are tortured will say any damn thing to make it stop. So the only reason to torture someone is 1. one is misinformed or 2. to get one's rocks off. There is no way to be a civilized, law-abiding person or nation and at the same time torture for the express purpose of "obtaining information".

And remember this next because it is not inconsequential... "You never expect the Spanish Inquisition." Like the best jokes, it's no joke.

[DaOne]

Well said

[LisainNYC]

Your premise it the problem. How do we identify a suspected terrorist as "having information that may prevent . . . "?

We never KNOW if someone has true information unless we already know the information. And if the guy is a "suspected terrorist" we obviously aren't sure of the facts regarding him either. If Man A has said Man X knows all the details, so what? Did Man A say that under torture himself? They will both say ANYTHING to stop the pain. Just ask John McCain.

After you turn off 24, that is.

[WharfRat77ch]

When the Vietnamese shot down John McCain and captured him, they tortured him. Why?

Well, considering that American bombs were killing thousands of civilians and not just destroying military targets, perhaps the Vietnamese felt that all American pilots were terrorists. Thus, when "a suspected terrorist was captured, and he/she had been identified as having information that may prevent the deaths of thousands of innocents..." By this logic, torturing pilots in order to learn more about their strategy and tactics to protect their citizens is a perfectly logical and legitimate pursuit.

[DKLA]

THE POINT IS IT'S TORTURE!!, or are you beyond humanity? STOP REPEATING REPUBLICAN-TALKING-POINTS!! Fox "news" is a bunch of idiots, & war-profiteers. WHICH ARE YOU?
TRY THINKING FOR YOURSELF, or read any history on the damage torture does to any efforts to get at the truth or stop the creation of future "terrorist's", WAKE-UP!!

[smartalek]

"AzRealProgressive," your entire premise is BS.
Outside of action movies, 24, and other works of fiction, there has never been such a real-life "ticking-bomb" case. Not once in the 232 years (Happy Birthday America!) that our country has existed.
But you know that, don't you? And the fact that you know it's all lies still doesn't stop you from posting your nonsense, does it? Even your screen-name (as if you've ever been "progressive" on anything) is a lie.
Not that there's any surprise there -- the recihwing has long been unable to sell its ideology, its policies, its programs, and its candidates with anything other than blatant deception.
The only difference now is, after 7 1/2 years of Republican control of all four branches of gov't (since it's clear the MSM is under complete corporatist control, too), the total and utter failure of "conservative" ideas has gotten so devastatingly obvious that even the least political of citizens can't be fooled any more.
Go back to FReeper-ville; your BS isn't going to sell here.

[AzRealProgressive]

Sold to smartalek!

The poster who calls people names therby losing the legitimacy of his arguement.

Poster child for tantrums hates the truth.

smartaleks never learn, they just resort to name calling.

[joehigashi]

Although I'm disturbed by the human rights violations of China, please please please don't call them Communists. They aren't. It's raw, 19th-century style capitalism if anything, with a wedge of authoritarianism. But no 'communist.' So please stop using that word. K thx.

[AzRealProgressive]

People's Republic Of China. communist, end of statement. They want it that way. Capitalism has nothing to do with their form of government.

[esquire07]

Your not very well read are you Az ?

[lanshark]

While nominally communist, they embraced capitalism out of economic desperation. They've maintained the authoritarian and the governing structures of being a communist regime, but capitalism powers a large part of their economy. Let's just say they are a very pragmatic people.

[davidpeace]

"They" want it that way? Who is "they"? If I were making the statement I would be referring to the dictatorial oligarchy, their version of our wealthy "elite". Are you implying that the masses like suppression? Furthermore, how do you know? Have you interviewed each and everyone of them? Whether it is the large group, the masses, or the small, the oligarchy, it still would be a while before you finished. After, of course, you finished your language lessons in Mandarin, Cantonese...

[truthynesslover]

Are you kidding?china is an american corporation with a chinese flag stuck on it!The corporations LOVE china because they are so corrupt theyve sold their soul to them.Why do you think so many companies go there?They can abuse the workers AND destroy the environment!Its a win-win!!

[ChristianEcon.com]

Capitalism, in the pure sense, is already authoritarian; it doesn't need a "wedge" added from elsewhere to make that so.

[Sparty1]

I wonder if he thought about God during his water boarding segment? If anyone knows about Mr. Hitchens, you know what I'm talking about.

[CraigR]

yeah, he's an atheist. If he had thought about an imaginary god, I'm sure he would have mentioned it.

[dac253]

My bet is that he was thinking about air and water.

Most people of faith cannot believe that atheists actually exist, but they do.

[AzRealProgressive]

Why would he think about something he does not believe in ?

A very provocative piece by the author.

[Tulka2]

To Sparty1... Read an article in the New York Times sometime in the last week of May that made me think of Hittchens. This article reported an old letter of Albert Eienstien's to a European scientist friend recently sold for (I think...?) 400,000 plus dollars. Wowser, eh? It was a great letter printed in full. The bit i want to tell you here is the bit where he said that he mostly felt sorry for religious people, but on the other hand (and i remember this bit perfectly), "avowed atheists seem to be irritated by the music of the spheres". I thought of old Chris Hittchens. He does seem irritated by mysterious music he actually seems to hear, doesn't he? Sums him his complicated self.

[CraigR]

Twelve words taken out of context. Nice.

[lanshark]

I think from his own words all he could think of was making it stop and taking his next breath.

[dgscol]

They could have known all in less than three minutes.

[cassidynj]

If you mix compassionate conservatism and waterboarding do you get 'compassionate waterboarding'???

If so, the milk-fed veal calves at Fox News will be happy to parrot the improved label!

[MikeMidCity]

As much as I dislike Hitchins .... nobody deserves water-boarding .... not even Bush.

[Tulka2]

The most pertinent fact of all....? Any random person will say any damn random thing to make it stop.

[esquire07]

What a disgrace the US has become.

[Vinca]

To TULKA2: If the admin needed a confession, maybe in order to go to war or some other reason, THEY DON'T CARE IF IT'S FALSE< AND MADE TO STOP THE PAIN< JUST SO IT WILL SERVE THEIR CAUSE

[greekdish]

Problem is, they cant talk when being waterboarded. They talk afterwards. So for you to claim that people will just say anything to make it stop is false. This isnt torture where you are cutting people's limbs off, electrocuting them, cutting their tongues out, or gouging the eyes. This is a simple procedure that gives an ILLUSION of drowning. Experts agree that you cant even die from waterboarding, unless you have a heart attack from extreme fear....no more risk than someone jumping out from behind a door and yelling BOO at you. You cant drown from waterboarding, and certainly not from an expert itnerrogator. Once again....they talk after they cried for help to stop, and then start babbling away the info. Once again, the interrogators are good at their job, and KNOW when they are lying. They have evidence, they have spies, and they can find out instantly if they are lying or not.

[YellowPanties]

Well... I think a few people have earned some waterboarding - mostly those who claim it's not torture.

And Karl Rove.

[Guitarsandmore]

Torture (waterboarding) is where you get your "compassionate conservatism" that Bush is so fond of talking about! Just another one of his campaign promises that didn't turn out quite like we thought it would!

[ChristianEcon.com]

Think how bad plain ol' straight conservatism would be.

[Pinkmarbles]

If it saves just one American life I say water board 'em all!

[HepsibahStarbuck]

Since we don't know if you are a terrorist cell or not, I say we start with you.

[Tulka2]

Maybe she knows something she doesn't know she knows....? Such a "good American" would not trust herself to know what the President knows. She would want athorities to know for sure. Down the rabbit hole we go.

[soundfury]

Not that this should be a justification on why torture should never be used, but what if an American POWs are tortured because we decided to throw human rights and the Geneva Convention out the window? What if Americans who are kidnapped and held as hostages are tortured because if we did it, then why can't they?

However, I have a better reason: Whatever happened to civilization? Whatever happened to humanity? Whatever happend to decency? What if the man is innocent and knows nothing?

First try it yourself, see what it feels like. It's easy to say this when you're comfortably numb.

You don't make the world a better and safer place this way. You just make your enemy more hateful and yourself no better than him.

[cobobs]

Exactly, one man's good guy is another man's bad guy.

[dac253]

Marked as favorite :)

[daeuri]

If you asked most people in the Intelligence community, off the record, they will tell you that torture is an extremely unreliable method to get useful intelligence from a suspect/detainee. Here are just two of the reasons for this: 01. The captors usually tell the tortured, through their suspicions, what it is they want to know, and most, if not all, people will tell someone whatever they want to hear when subjected to enough pain/discomfort whether it is true or not (which begs the question why we would torture someone to confirm what we already have a factual basis to assume is true);

02. True spies/terrorists are often fed false information to throw the captors off the scent of the real plot(s). Hasn't it occurred to you that people who are willing to kill thousands of people might lie to their own people as a fail safe against being discovered? Your hate of the "'em" you refer in your post doesn't make them stupid.

[janvoght]

if you like living in America, enjoy the freedoms that America provides, via it's constitution, don't you think supporting subverting the constitution is just a little disingenuous? how much longer do you think an administration like GW's would keep us all free? sho knows when you or me would be next? swoop up on us, take us to an unforclosed destination, torture us, claim we were part of a terror plot that was gleened acording to enhanced interrogation techniques, and away we'd go!
obama '08

[genseric13]

We are only free as long as the Congress opposes the President and blocks his/her ambitions. All of you foolish people who keep thinking that electing a Democrat (Obama in this case) is going to matter. It didn't matter when we elected Clinton, the Dem Congress in 2006, and it won't matter if Obama goes in. I'm telling you there isn't a dimes worth of difference between McCain and Obama. Obama has already pretty much foresworn all of his campain promises. He even said today he wanted to spend more money on religious groups (great, another George W at the helm). If we could have elected a real liberal in the 1990s who could have effectively opposed the neo-con ideas, this would still be a great country. Instead, today as in the 1990s, we have an absolutely pathetic Democratic Party, only interested in making their little political points, making Government larger, and strangling our freedom.

[thinklib]

Agree.

They wouldn't do waterboarding if it didn't work. If they never got reliable information from it, they would stop.

It's better than cutting off thumbs, gouging out eyes, etc... The people THINK they are dying, but they are not. If I was to be tortured, waterboarding is the method I'd hope for.

You know, all of this would be a non-issue if it wasn't for the whiney, sniveling press and the far left.

Most would agree (not on this site) that if waterboarding works and no one is dying, have at it.

[greekdish]

well said. Couldnt agree more. People actually compare this to cutting people's fingers off or something. People make jokes about Chinese water torture all the time, but it works, and is harmless. A dripping tank of water over your head as you are lying down, dripping every second on your forehead will drive you nuts. Is it cruel?? Hardly. There are left wing Liberals who will also say that inmates in a prison is cruel and unusual punishment. LOL.

[darthmaul]

Sure, you will get some people that will tell you the truth, and allot more that will say anything they think the interrogator wants to hear. There's better way's to get Intel. It's just that it's easy for Bush and his minions to understand waterboarding. You don't have to think or bother to find out how well it works or not. Just do it. There is a motto, that could be tailor made for the Bush Administration. "When all you have is a hammer, all the worlds problems look like nails."

[WorldsGreatestActor]

It looks as if poor Hitch is getting "86'd" from a bar in Beirut...