Mancow Addresses Accusation That His Waterboarding Was A Hoax (VIDEO)

Erich 'Mancow' Muller appeared on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" Friday to address rumors that the waterboarding he underwent a few weeks ago to see whether the technique was constituted torture was in fact a hoax. Olbermann mentioned a report on Gawker which reported that Mancow's waterboarding was 'completely fake' and simply a publicity stunt. As evidence they mentioned an email from Mancow's publicist that said "It will be a hoax but have to look real."

While Mancow admitted to Olbermann that it was fair to call the incident a "stupid radio stunt," he noted that "waterboarding, all it is is water in your nose and mouth with your head back. I'm not David Copperfield. We had 50 news cameras there." He suggested that while the event was meant as a stunt, as his publicist suggested, the events that took place were completely real.

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Comments

[MED1025]

Variations of this have been done since the Spanish Inquisition. It doesn't take an advanced degree to do this.

[loki]

Probably PNAC and the Neo Cons are spreading this to discredit Mancow's story of it being real torture.
causing even a slight doubt in his story is as good as killing it all together.

[timmmahhhh]

"I'm sure the company's insurance company would never allow it. It probably was a hoax."
They had to say it was a hoax for the very reason you state. And so the police would not interefere.

"How does this have any traction whatsoever?"
Look at how some of the right wingers are responding. They had who I consider one of their own go through it and now that he says it is torture the rest are trying to shut him up.

Mancow sums it up best - what happened to the truth? Yes he is a showman but he had every intention of disproving the torture and as he also said he failed at it. Mancow and Olbermann agree on something; trust me, that IS news.

[Stonybrooke2]

"They had to say it was a hoax for the very reason you state."


LOL

Hahahah.

So the powers that be were monitoring her e-mail?? Prove it.

She wasn't even located in the same building.

Also, have they never heard of the telephone??

Sure, son just make it up, some lib will buy it.

Btw, CAPUT TUUM IN ANO EST, tr0ll.

[blukazoo]

No one had to "monitor her email", she would have been forced to turn them over if something happened. If something had gone wrong and he'd been injured or died, the company could have been held accountable. Having written "we plan to tort.ure him" probably wouldn't have faired very well in the lawsuit.

[gallimaufry03]

Yanno ... saying it in latin sorta elevates you to elitist-lite. You sure you want that label?

[Doug Holmes]

Company emails are property of the corporations. They can be monitored, so they could put a stop to it. They could be subpoenaed if anything went wrong. Also, police and insurance claims. Pretty interesting it could catch so much flak if it's really so harmless, eh? A whole lot of legal red tape.

Fortunately, all that red tape makes a boundary for you to stand behind, point your finger and declare it a hoax and turn a blind eye to the great hypocrisy that is sacrificing values to "save lives."

"Oh, if I wasn't willing to *water board* a detainee and something happened, I couldn't live with myself"

"Oh, if I wasn't willing to *beat* a detainee and something happened, I couldn't live with myself"

"Oh, if I wasn't willing to *electrocute* a detainee and something happened, I couldn't live with myself!"

"Oh, if I wasn't willing to *cut small sections of skin off* a detainee and something happened, I couldn't live with myself!"

"Oh, if I wasn't willing to line some detainees up against a wall and execute a few to loosen some lips and gather some intel, and something happened, I wouldn't be able to live with myself!"

Waterboarding counts as mock executions, one of the top 5 most common methods of TORTURE.

We have prosecuted people in the past for waterboarding our men. What does it matter?

Oh yes... Al-Qaida isn't protected by the Geneva Convention. Isn't torture if they don't count right?

[oakley9]

I'm sure the company's insurance company would never allow it. It probably was a hoax.

[norkas]

It was real and if you look at Fridays Keith he appeared again stating this was NO hoax and defined it was 100% real and not a joke or scam.

Liz Cheny should try it with her big mouth and let her tell everyone no big deal. Her fater ran from the vietnam war with several defermets. Yes Cheny loves agression and war like a school punk causing all kinds of trouble and has other fight for him.

Waterboarding is torture for those who do not care then just wait what the other side will do with our troops and it will only get worse.

Republcans today LOVE WAR but most fighting it are Dems.

[roald]

What if no one told the insurance company?

In any case, why did the very conservative Mancow suddenly decide that this is torture?

[gallimaufry03]

Because it felt like torture.

[digitalprophet]

That falls in line with the whole playing off as a "stupid radio stunt" and "hoax" to begin with by the publicist.. The liability and legalities of it were catastrophic and they had to play it somewhat low-key.

[omobob]

I saw the video. While Mancow may not have been water boarded "professionally" as some have claimed, it was close enough to make him gag, spit up and cry "uncle". Is the angle"if he had been water boarded BETTER the results would have been different?” I don’t understand, as one writer so aptly put it, where the traction is?

[NYCMami]

I'm annoyed.

I'm annoyed I find this guy cute in that obnoxious, over-the-hill, frat boy kinda way.

I'm annoyed at his loud-mouth radio voice.

But I'm mostly annoyed at his inappropriate, unprofessional, yenta of a wife carrying their giant kid, not once, but TWICE across my television screen. Not that I find this topic newsworthy but I truly have never seen such stupidity. And that's saying plenty.

[sparky09]

I agree, except wifey & kid stepped out in background 3 or 4 times, not 2...Even more irritating...

[landthatilove]

HA HA "GIANT KID"! YENTA WIFE...LOL

[Gladys1963]

You're not the only one who is annoyed at themselves for thinking he's cute, esp. in those glasses.

[ourwinter]

How does this have any traction whatsoever?

[Gregor53]

He is braver than "Blow Hard" Hannity that stated he would be waterboarded for the troops families and then when everyone pledged money to see it, not a word from his pie hole!!

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

Why is there any doubt as to whether or not waterboarding is torture?If you're waterboarded incorrectly(for too long a time),you will die.It's no different than having someone hold your head underwater until you have no oxygen left in your system.If they hold you under a few seconds too long,same outcome.With waterboarding a pitcher of water takes the place of a body of water,complement that with getting tied down and it just means less fuss and less mess.There is no doubt it's torture.

[Rjmartinelli]

You've got it slightly wrong. If you're waterboarded "correctly" for too long you will die.

The entire process is drowning someone and telling them you'll stop if they give you the answers you want to hear.
Here's the thing. It's torture by very definition and not enough people are looking at it this way:

Even taking away the fact that it is essentially drowning people; it is the process of physically putting a person in a position of extreme discomfort (in this case asphyxiation) in order to coerce a desired response.

That's the very definition of torture.

To hell with the debate of whether or not it works (because it doesn't. People will tell you anything to get you to stop); it is torture. It is against the law both within the United States and Internationally.

The people who authorized and ordered it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[landthatilove]

DO NOT LEAVE A BUCKET OF MOP WATER UNATTENDED. ANY WANDERING TODDLER COULD TRIP AND HIS HEAD END UP IN THE BUCKET.

[landthatilove]

DO NOT USE A BOARD TO CROSS THE WATER. IT COULD SNAP RIGHT UNDER YOU AND YOU COULD END UP DROWNING.

[landthatilove]

IS A DIVING BOARD THE SAME AS A WATER BOARD? A DIVING BOARD COULD BE USED SUCCESSFULLY FOR A WATER BOARD IN SEVERAL INSTANCES.

[landthatilove]

DO NOT STAND UP IN A CANOE.

[landthatilove]

AVOID BOARDS, MOP BUCKETS, TEA CUPS AND THIMBLES.

[landthatilove]

MY MOTHER TOLD ME YOU CAN DROWN IN A TEA CUP OF WATER. NOW I AM SCARED OF TEA CUPS...VERY EVIL THINGS.

[MJinCanada]

Some posters have claimed it was a hoax or not realistic because the guy who did it had never waterboarded anyone before.

However, I'm pretty sure that if a radio station calls up the Pentagon or CIA and asks for an "interrogation specialist" to come over and do a publicity stunt for a talk show host, the answer would be a pretty firm, "No."

And if Muller actually had any friends who had gone through SERE training, he wouldn't have been spouting the "it's not torture" line in the first place, because they would have set him straight.

So, presumably, he made do with what he could find in the way of someone willing to do this.

[Stonybrooke2]

He cld have gotten the same guy Hitchens got.

[landthatilove]

I DID NOT KNOW RADIO STATIONS COULD DIAL A PHONE. MUST BE PRETTY BIG BUTTONS ON THAT ONE!

[digitalprophet]

On top of all that, I'm fairly certain I could pour water down someone's nose while they laid backwards without any sort of training :)

[NedroidPrime]

Really...

How about Jesse Ventura? Ex Navy Seal, attended SERE, and says that IT IS TORTURE!

So, what was that again...?

[NedroidPrime]

Sorry, misread your post...

[IWantTofu]

The way I understood what was going on was that ManCow was really going to be water boarded, and expected to come out of it saying it was not really torture. The whole E-mails from the publicists saying that it was a hoax and was going to be staged, was for the radio station which wasn't going to let them do a real water boarding. They were making those comments so that they could do their stunt.

ManCow is a right wing talk show host, and really wanted to demonstrate that water boarding wasn't torture, which was his true belief. I think the water boarding actually changed his mind.

The whole discussion of whether we should ever torture versus whether water boarding is torture is a totally different argument.

[UsofA]

I'm waiting for the first accidental waterboarding death at a frat waterboarding party that I can lay at the feet of Bush and Cheney for having panicked and re-introduced this junk tactic into our culture.

[MaggieMamacat]

I'm afraid we'll see an accidental waterboarding death of a juvenile by adults who figured it was harmless and left no marks. When you think of the things that extremely dysfunctional parents already do to kids (chained in basement, dog cages, tasers), you know there must be people already using this as "discipline."

[MyGuyO]

This guy from the start didn't sound real. There is something quite fishy about him to say the least.
This man is not to be trusted.

[AnthonyVolpe]

If people would have said that about Bush and Cheney in 2000, we'd be a lot better off.

[repugnicansfearme]

Mancow is a d***chebag.

[roald]

If you have listened to him in the past, that would be obvious, however, I tend to trust people when they say things that are out of character when exposed to new circumstances.

[dwillisno1]

A republican spokesman of renown

"I know torture" he said with a frown

Torture's not about what you do

its more about who you do it to

its only torture when the victims really drown!

[Coltrane1234]

No it's torture when it's torture.

[TParrish]

I understand having absolutely no sense of humor about this, but dwillisno1's post was satire.