Several weeks ago, while listening to the radio, the dj's kept talking about a police blitz. They were going to more actively look for people driving under the influence. Apparently they bought ad space all over the state, and were putting representatives on the radio and TV commercials to get the word out. The dj for the station I usually listen to was joking around with the officer that was visiting their morning radio show, and somehow they got on to the topic of the stun guns that some officers carry now.
These stun guns shoot thin little wires with barbed hooks on the end that hook into a person's skin. Then the gun shoots as much as like 2,000,000 volts through the wires hooked in to your skin. The dj asked if it hurt (duh) and the cop said "most of the time". 'Well, what do you mean'? The cop explained that if somebody is intoxicated enough the pain doesn't seem to register in their brain and the gun does not effectively "stun" them as it does with most people. At that point the gun significantly increases the voltage until they get a response. As they talk about it the office mentions that everyone on the force who carries one has to be stunned as part of their training. So the dj, in the name of entertainment, volunteers himself to be stunned (that part is really relevant, just funny, and it was!)
So, what is the point? There has been a lot of arguing whether "water boarding" is torture. I've never had to experience it, so I don't know. Torture is a bit of a wiggling definition in that it's hard to pin down. Different people/agencies/organizations define it differently. Am I opposed to water boarding? Yes! A retired CIA intelligence officer told me that intelligence gather by coercive means is some of the very least credible intelligence they acquire. It's maybe a half notch above the National Inquirer, she said. Ok, sorry for the tangent, back on topic...
The point is. I would feel better about water boarding and other coercive means of obtaining intelligence if the interrogators were subjected to the treatments to the same level and extent they are used and under the same conditions, before they could use them. Would that make it right? No, but I don't think there would be nearly as many interrogators using those methods.
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3 comments:
Have you ever heard of the Army's SERE School?
I know our military does torture training on our own people because Jamie was concerned it woudl be something Seth would have to go through
I've only heard of the SERE school, nothing more. And I've heard that some officers go through torture training, but from my understanding it is not to the same extent that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, for example, are subjected to.
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