Olbermann, Mancow Interview: Mancow Discusses Being Waterboarded (VIDEO)

Keith Olbermann interviewed conservative radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller tonigh about his experience being waterboarded. Mancow said he agreed to be interviewed because Olbermann is a "stand up guy" for agreeing to donate $10,000 to a charity benefiting veterans (an offer previously extended to Sean Hannity) after Mancow was waterboarded.

Mancow reaffirmed that the practice was indeed torture and said that his "psychological state" going into the experiment was that he was "laughing at it. I was willing to prove, and ready to prove, that this was a joke, and I was wrong. It was horrific. It was instantaneous. And look, I felt the effects for two days."

Mancow also revealed that his friend Sean Hannity "called me and said 'it's still not torture.'"

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Comments

[gallimaufry03]

In fairness to Hannity, I don't think he's not getting waterboarded because he's scared of being waterboarded. I think he's scared it will make him change his opinion.

[Annihilia]

On Judge Napolitano's internet show, Freedom Watch, Mancow maintained that even after this, he still supported torture of prisoners. Judge Nap called him a neocon with moral issues, which gave me a good laugh.

[TanzaniteDiamonds]

Thank you for this information. No wonder Mancow and Hannity are "still" friends?!!

[fredisfred]

Or both...

[mcnary]

Hey folks, of course we torture. Yes the great and glorious USA.. we torture, always have always will.

Everyone does it and then of course they deny it. Cmon this stuff goes on in any war. ... We are no better than anyone else... Now go back to your TV sets everyone, we will call you when its your turn.

[pakaal]

Off in your own world, where ticking timebombs are disassembled at the last minute by trusty American Heroes like Jack Bauer after torturing the truth out of the evildoer. Maybe you should turn your TV off, instead of encouraging everyone else to turn theirs' on.

[gallimaufry03]

Just because we do it, doesn't make it right.

[Garrett123]

Call us when it's our turn for what huh?

[ssg13565]

Yes, we may have slipped in the past. Maybe even more frequently than we want to know, My Lai Massacre.

But at least we had the decency to be ashamed of what failings we were aware of.

No person or nation is perfect. However, you cannot even strive for a more perfect union if you don't even know the difference between right and wrong.

[Badfickle]

Hey folks, of course we own slaves. yes the great and glorious USA... we own slaves, always have always will.

Everyone does it and then of course they deny it. Cmon this stuff goes on. We are no better than anyone else... now go back to your plantations, we will call you when its your turn.

[ainsleyburrows]

the greatest thing will be for us to look back at these event 20 years from today. we will wonder why we sat back and listen to these Republicans spew this tripe while burning the the constitution and all kinds of international. Torture is illegal. Illegal means if you do it you have dire consequences. imagine if say Russians had Americans in prison camps for almost 8 years not trial, not lawyers just an accusation. Imagine these same Russians were waterboarding the Americans. how would we view these events...

I bet Sean Hannity and Rush and all the other Republicans who think it is not torture would change their mind. matter of fact i think holding some one with out trial is a form of torture...­how about them apples..

[fredisfred]

Oh, 20 years from now Reublicans (or what's left of them) will still be defending torture.

[yannb]

Hean Sannity should go next

[LeftRight]

Heinlein brought up a good point. People who are tortured will confess to SUICIDE!!

[wijg]

All conservatives are now libertarians.

[Garrett123]

And 95% of them haven't read the novel that outlines their new ideology. It is truly hilarious.

[sherwoodforest]

Because the first prerequisite for being right wing is NOT READING.

[cactusgal]

They're still trying to figure out Catches 1-21

[NanaPokuWare]

Another aspect jumps to my head:
What happens to the minds of those interrogators ?
Do they loose part of their civil inhibition to harm others because they think it is for a good, patriotic cause ?

Coming from Germany, I would like to supply you with this piece of information:
The only point, where Hitler and Stalin concurred was a meme or principle set up by Wladimir Illitsch Lenin, the founder of the Communist USSR, that "Der Zweck heiligt die Mittel" - "the end justifies (sanctifies) the means".

It is actually a centrepiece of communist philosophy and was the reason, why the Socialists in East Germany (GDR) thought it was OK to kill their own people before 1990. The soldiers and Secret Service (MfS) members who were part of the oppressive system were proud patriots and mostly felt no remorse when brought to trial on shooting so-called "Republik-­Fluechtlin­ge" (a term used for people who tried to escape to Western Germany).

Will having this discussion about whether torture is justifiable or not create a bunch of people whose mindset follows this communist principle while they think it is patriotic and even conservative ?

[carolinecantoo]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[sherwoodforest]

Thank you for this- I have asked my right wing friends if "the end justifies (sanctifies) the means"- and they think it does.
So there you are.

[EuroRant1]

Living here in Europe ... I've never gone into this subject very deeply. Obviously you have done your homework.

I am now hungry for more of this knowledge about this issue. I found this post very interesting ... it's quite rare to find such a gem on here. Thank you.

[NanaPokuWare]

Another aspect jumps to my head:
What happens to the minds of those interrogators ?
Do they loose part of their civil inhibition to harm others because they think it is for a good, patriotic cause ?

Coming from Germany, I would like to supply you with this piece of information:
The only point where Hitler and Stalin concurred was a meme or principle set up by Wladimir Illitsch Lenin, the founder of the Communist USSR, that "Der Zweck heiligt die Mittel" - "the end justifies (sanctifies) the means".

It is actually a centrepiece of communist philosophy and was the reason, why the Socialists in East Germany (GDR) thought it was OK to kill their own people before 1990. The soldiers and Secret Service (MfS) members who were part of the oppressive system were proud patriots and mostly felt no remorse when brought to trial on shooting so-called "Republik-­Fluechtlin­ge" (a term used for people who tried to escape to Western Germany).

Will having this discussion about whether torture is justifiable or not create a bunch of people whose mindset follows this communist principle while they think it is patriotic and even "conservative" ?

[yulyyz]

Indeed, it is torture:

...I find it fascinating how many people, mainly on the right, are still trying to find ways to justify the use of this "enhanced interrogation technique". Some examples:

People who are waterboarded usually recover in about 10 minutes. Except the 'people' here are the US Special Forces who experience this as part of their training for the SERE program. It should be noted that this enhanced technique is done in a controlled environment, where the trainee knows that it's only for training, and that if he or she is in distress the trainers will stop immediately. A prisoner has no such knowledge. I personally doubt anyone would be able to recover in 10 minutes if they were waterboarded 20 times in a row until they lost consciousness from oxygen deprivation after each run...

From: http://www.open.salon.com/blog/kanuk/2009/04/29/torture_do_unto_others_remember

[emerger]

I saw the interview - gotta say HOW DAMN TIRED I AM of flag waving types like Mancow. As if respect and appreciation of US soldiers is somehow a quality solely owned and operated by the Right. We'd been through 8 years of BushCo using patriotism to flog political opponents. Nationalism has it's place alright but I'm just about fed up with it's overuse.

[TheAnti-Bush]

I totally agree. Good post, emerger.

[mh7719]

I feel that we are being lied to when they say they've only done this to three people, I have a STRONG feeling that there are MANY MANY other people the US Government waterboarded under the previous regime. They destroyed many videotapes of the waterboardings that took place, they SAY that it was all done to only 3 people, but we should know better than that... its like asking how many drinks have you had at a party.. many always equals 3... I also believe the CIA should stop being spineless and own up to their authorations, I mean the Bush administration wanted to link the 9/11 attack that destroyed the three buildings in New York to Iraq so badly that they were going to use any method possible including inhumane and illegal means so they could justify funding their KBR machine. Speaking of KBR, family members that lost brave soldiers from KBR negligence should sue KBR/Halliburton to bankrupcy and beyond... Dick Cheney is the most evil person thats ever lived, he needs to be arrested and tried for treason...

[rigormrtis]

Isn't it now obvious that Mancow is a closet liberal?

[PCdoc]

how do you figure that Sparky?

[LeftRight]

Um.... Nope. He's a STRONG conservative, I have issues with everything else he's said, but he's manned up and admitted that this was torture!

[hjfraser2002]

He has been exposed to the truth, he must be ejected from the right.

[AprilPA]

Unless he apologizes to the King of the GOP Rush for saying that waterboarding is torture.

[Cybesq]

Was Churchill a closet liberal?

[WraithKenny]

This torture controversy is fundamentally about the rule of law.

Under the rule of law, the procedure is to investigate possible crimes, and if crimes are found to have been committed, we prosecute the alleged criminals. If the alleged criminals are found guilty by a jury of their peers in a fair trial, they should be given the appropriate penalty under the law.

None of this can happen without an investigation, into what the law is, and if it was broken. Without that, we do not have a Nation of Laws, and none of us owe any allegiance to a government which is not our own.

[skip09]

Agree, without rule of law, there is no civilization. This is a slippery slope that we don't want to go to. And the end does not justify the means.

[care4mypeeps]

I am greatful for Mancow's bravery and respect the fact that he told the "Truth". I still think Sean Hannity should pick the Navy Seal of his choice and voluteer to be water boarded.

Torture is the appropriate name for it and nothing eles can discribe its hiddeous nature.

I haven't heard the negative chatter from the Right about Mancows analysis of what he went through
after only lasting 6 seconds of "Torture"

[regellner]

The fact that this is a debate is amazing; of course water boarding is torture. I have written some articles related to the torture issue on Examiner.com at the following links:

http://www.examiner.com/x-11326-Charlotte-Liberal-Examiner~y2009m5d18-Focus-must-remain-on-creators-and-implementers-of-torture-policy

http://www.examiner.com/x-11326-Charlotte-Liberal-Examiner~y2009m5d21-GOP-attacks-on-Pelosi-lack-substance

Raymond Gellner - Charlotte Liberal Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-11326-Charlotte-Liberal-Examiner

[ContraEgoiste]

Yup, the law is pretty clear.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002340----000-.html

U.S. Code

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 113C > § 2340

(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 h@rm caused by or resulting from—

(A) the intentional infliction or thre@tened infliction of severe physical p@in 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.

[EuroRant1]

Wow, the quality of posts on the HuffingtonPost keeps getting better by the day. Thanks for your efforts it is very much appreciated.

"The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot." - Mark Twain