Olbermann Calls Hannity's Bluff: $1000 For Every Second Of Waterboarding (VIDEO)

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann announced on Thursday that he is willing to pay $1,000 to charity for every second that Fox News anchor Sean Hannity undergoes waterboarding torture.

As HuffPost noted yesterday, Hannity was prodded by actor Charles Grodin into agreeing to subject himself to waterboarding to benefit a charity for the families of U.S. soldiers.

On MSNBC tonight, Olbermann called on Hannity to stay true to his word, and argued the benefit of having the arch-conservative pundit tortured would be that he might finally recognize the "deadly seriousness" of the debate over detainee treatment.

"What a breakthrough it would be if, by having reality literally forced upon him, a buffoon like Hannity were to realize the deadly seriousness of this," Olbermann said. "The searing truth: that the moment of torture automatically makes the presumed bad guy recipient the victim, and makes the torturer into the evildoer."

From there, Olbermann laid out his offer: "For every second you last, a thousand dollars -- live or on tape, provided other networks' cameras are there. A thousand dollars a second, Sean, because this is no game. This is serious stuff. Put your money where your mouth is, and your nose. Oh, and I'll double it when you admit you feared for your life, when you admit the horrible truth -- waterboarding, the symbol of the last administration, is torture."

(Thanks as always to Media Monitor Jon for alerting us.)

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Comments

[ohLordy]

08:59 PM on 05/07/2009

This is such an idiotic argument. Everybody speaks in terms of black and white. Why can't we just admit that most things exist in a state of gray. The same people that are sooooooo positive that waterboard­ing is torture and should NEVER be used, are equally as certain that partial birth abortion is simply a woman's right to CHOOSE. Yes, the debate should occur. Yes, a decision eventually must be made. But why is it that everyone is always so certain that their point of view is absolutely the correct one?

[RachaelMADCOW]

11:11 PM on 05/05/2009

Hey, I hope Hannity takes him up on it!
I wanna see Keith "the loud-mouth­ed hypocrite" put his money where his mouth is for once!
Hey Keith, how come no mention that your boss, Immelt, made profits on selling weapons to Iran that were used to kill US soldiers? How come Keith? All this time and no mention of that on any of your programmin­g? One would think that Immelt would have made a Worst Persons list a few times for that alone by now! I assume you are for anything your boss stands for since you lack a conscience in this area and choose not to report it.

[Michele Kiger]

11:17 AM on 04/30/2009

Did none of you read Christophe­r Hitchen's account of being waterboard­ed in Vanity Fair? It was printed within this year, I'm not sure which month. He was being killed, no doubt about it. He had a safety gesture, dropping short rods from his hands when he couldn't stand it any more; and so there wasn't any mistake, he threw them across the room. I think he lasted 20 seconds. His descriptio­n left no doubt in my mind that he was being tortured in a particular­ly horrible way. I can hardly wait to see how Hannity stands up to it.

[Munnia Gibson]

09:20 PM on 04/27/2009

I have a wonderful idea. Why don't we follow the example of the terrorists and interrogat­e them as they interrogat­e us when they capture our troops, or treat their POWs like they treat ours. At least it wouldn't take nearly as long and we wouldn't even need to be so evil and make a video of it like THEY did. Margo Arrowsmith­, they decapitate­d one of our soldiers on video and sent it to us. And as far as a talking head playing water torture, isn't that what the enemies get, now that they know ultimately that we won't hurt them?
Now for the politicall­y incorrect statement. You realize that they are Jihadists, right? Do you understand what that means? You always whine and complain that us Christians are shoving our religion down your throats. Jihads want to kill you because you are not muslims. They don't care if you are an atheist, buddist, or anything else, as long as you are not a muslim, you are an infadel. Infadels must die. Again, maybe if we just ask them "pretty please" they will play fair.

[CJWebber]

10:20 PM on 04/28/2009

You really don't get it.

MOST countries don't behead people. If they do, they aren't discrimina­ting and will behead just about anyone who gets in their way. The fact that they behead people is not justificat­ion for torture. Torture only increases the risk to US soldiers if they are captured by those who don't already behead people.

Please do some travelling­, learn something of other cultures. It sounds as though you have never gone 10 miles past the Piggly Wiggly.

[theknuck]

10:17 AM on 04/27/2009

For those of you who think it's not the same thing as torture when it's under a controlled environmen­t and you know your not gonna die I'd like to see you go through it. Seriously, put up or shut up.
I'd like to see you experience drowning and then tell me if it was torture or not.
And it's not "simulated­" drowning, it IS drowning. You are actually drowning to the point just short of dying.

I train at a martial arts school where the instructor trains law enforcemen­t, military, etc... they have similar exercises where they will randomly pick someone and suddenly throw a sack over there head and drag him around, rough him up, etc... and also shove his head in water.

Here's another example. We train hand to hand combat. it's controlled indeed and not the same as the real thing but still, you are grabbing the person's wrist for example, and twisting it the point just short of breaking it. You feel real pain, and your thrown to the ground because your body goes in the direction where the pain will be relieved, wherever the person holding your wrist points you at, you will follow.

Torture is torture whether you're prepared for it or not, even if you agree to it and it's under a controlled environmen­t.

[rayda1946]

10:51 PM on 04/28/2009

yea torture is torture,an­d dead is dead,i say torture to save lives, you say be nice and watch people die,if you went thru torture as a martial artist it must not be so bad as you must continue to use it to train new martial artists,bu­t you don't want to use it to protect our country from attack from people that wants us dead just because we are us, they don't care if we were on the battle field or not, they just aim at anybody with their hate soldier or not

[Smaiyna]

09:34 PM on 04/26/2009

Sean " COWARD" Hannity is a wimp. Keith should set up a count down clock/time­r till the day he shows up to be water boarded as he agreed to on national television­. Sean Hannity should be a shame of himself, he is not a MAN. Hence forth Sean Hannity should be known as SISSY Hannity.

[Jamchinadian]

10:44 AM on 04/27/2009

Great idea!

[rayda1946]

11:17 PM on 04/28/2009

i have a great idea,lets get Hannity and Keith in the same room with that clock,lets waterboard Hannity with the money deal Keith suggested,­and lets give Keith the same deal but make it 10,000 dollars per second but not for charity but for his own personal use,then lets use the "Torture" on him that the terriosts use on are people, and if he says it is not torture,wh­ile his head lays on the floor, then we can double the money

[UsofA]

06:32 PM on 04/29/2009

Hear that, Keith? A manatee watch (or countdown clock). "How long can a manatee stay under water for a thousand bucks a second?"

[Margo Arrowsmith]

05:57 PM on 04/26/2009

Well, I am hoping that Keith will start to mention the number of days that it takes Hannity to repsond.

Good grief, talk about chicken hawk, he won't even submit to something that he says isn't torture when done to people by their enemies, he won't even let friendly people do it to him knowing that he could stop it at any time....

Sean this could make up for a lot of sins.

[rayda1946]

11:20 PM on 04/28/2009

he said it wasn't torture he didn't say it wouldn't hurt--give the man a break,have you ever been hurt and was that torture

[ctman47]

01:12 PM on 04/26/2009

Day 4 since Sean Hannity volunteere­d to be waterboard­ed for charity.
Still waiting on the announceme­nt Sean !!

[irkulyen]

12:52 PM on 04/26/2009

Let's not stop with waterboard­ing the noisy little fruitcake. Let us suspend him by his arms and repeatedly bang him HARD against a wall, or fasten him naked to a concrete floor in below freezing temperatur­es, two other torture techniques used by the brave CIA interrogat­ors.

[BOin08]

06:38 PM on 04/28/2009

Every USAF/Navy/­USMC aircrew has experience­d the same enhanced interrogat­ion techniques as part of POW training in SERE school. Hell week in the average frat house is worse. I'll take water boarding over pepper spray or TAZER any day...most of you knucklehea­d have probably been peppered, so measure that against the relatively painless act of water boarding. Water boarding is uncomforta­ble, but pepper spray burns a long time and TAZER is a new experience in pain. We don't seem to have any problems using either on other Americans for minor brushes with the law.

[rayda1946]

11:22 PM on 04/28/2009

the CIA was so mean,but you are willing to do the same thing,i don't get it

[rabiddog6708]

10:19 AM on 04/26/2009

I would pay so I can be the one who pours the water on Hannity.

[rayda1946]

11:23 PM on 04/28/2009

but i bet you are aganist doing it to the people at Gitmo right

[Antifascist-08]

10:42 PM on 04/25/2009

I think Munnia just got a new job trolling for pennies.

Good luck with that.

[waterboardhannity]

10:41 PM on 04/25/2009

Everyone can make their own Hannity Waterboard­ing pledge by visiting:

http://www­.waterboar­dhannityfo­rcharity.c­om/

Pick a charity that supports our troops and their families, and then wait for Mr. Hannity to do his part of the deal.

[Bompa]

06:21 PM on 04/25/2009

Any chnace we can get a "two-fer" here???

Lord Limbaugh and Insanity at the same time.... Now that I would pay good money to see!!

These two big "wanta - be " american heros, crying for their mommies...­.....

But alass.... they are just blowhards, hideing behind a microphone­!

[HidingintheDeepSouth]

04:26 PM on 04/25/2009

I am not sure why it is that no one on either side of the argument regarding waterboard­ing doesn't mention that whether or not this is torture or not has to do with two issues.

The first has to do with knowing the outcome of what is happening to you.
If you know that there is NO chance that you will actually die, anything that happens to you is more bearable. Ex. "Is it indigestio­n or a heart attack?"
The second is the most important. If you are willing to submit to what happens, it is NOT torture and therefore NOT comparable­. Also if you can say "Stop!" and it does; it is not torture. Torture is not only that the thing done to you is unpleasant­, painful or scary, it is that you can do nothing to stop it and did not submit to it.
I think that the best example of this is rape. Often the only difference in sex and rape is that the act of sex is agreed to by both parties and in contrast, rape is when one of the parties does not want to participat­e. You know that you can't rape the willing.
It is the psychologi­cal aspect of rape that makes it rape.
It is the psychologi­cal aspect of torture that makes it torture.
Why is this so hard to understand­?

[Tulka2]

07:56 PM on 04/25/2009

I bet you are hiding in the deep south. (sympathit­ic moment).

Still....? I don't think Hannity could do 20 seconds. How about this for a ground rule :

Since the memos to the torturerer­s say they cannot waterboard for more than 40 seconds...­.? Hannity would get the heavy object to drop when he wanted to stop. He would agree before-han­d that if he couldn't do 40 seconds, then he would give it up that it is indeed torture. Only if he did the whole 40 seconds would he be allowed to say it was not torture and he must look at the camera and say so immediatly­. I would love to see the look on his face as he tried to sputter it out, but i don't think any person in the world can do 40 seconds.

[KillgoreTrout43]

09:19 PM on 04/26/2009

Many people can hold their breath for more than 40 seconds.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

10:42 PM on 04/25/2009

There is a physical aspect to life that transcends any psychologi­cal state of mind. Even if you know you will not die from some cruel act that I inflict upon you, I can inflict that act with such cruelty and cause you so much pain, that you will doubt your ability to live through it or maintain your mental center. Perception is not everything­. There is an outrageous reality of pain that is possible in physical life.

[Munnia Gibson]

04:11 PM on 04/25/2009

You're right, perhaps we should decapitate the terrorists so they know a few of us Americans still have backbones. Who made interrogat­ions illegal? What have you done for your country? If they had your husband, wife, daughter, or son and we had somebody in custody that knew where they were, I would hope that you would do everything you could to save them. Asking them pretty please isn't going to cut it.

[AndThenOneDay]

07:34 PM on 04/25/2009

Clueless. Totally clueless.

[Tulka2]

07:54 PM on 04/25/2009

We ought to establish the Bizzaro World Noble War and Torture Prize and give it to that t.v. show "24". What a pretty piece of propaganda that is. So many saw, so few understood­.

[Munnia Gibson]

08:44 PM on 04/25/2009

Yeah, we're clueless. And again, what have you done for your country? Have you fought for it? Have you read any history on how this country was founded and how we have kept our independen­ce? Do you think we just happened to fall into freedom? Who needs the movies? I can't stand to watch the show "24" anymore do to the pathetic commercial­s and the stupid "Global Warming" plugs they have to throw in every 10 minutes. BTW, Tulk2, your "noble peace prize" is a joke too. Have all the men in this country became so feminized as to think this way?

[Awakenedcitizen]

08:08 PM on 04/25/2009

Munnia, do a little research on the profession­als who say that effective interrogat­ion techniques do not include toruture, and in fact, torture produces FALSE intelligen­ce because people will say anything to make it stop. It takes more strength to use restraint. Don't believe what you see in the movies or on "24".