what waterboarding feels like

Here’s a personal account of waterboarding from someone who did it to himself to see what all the fuss was about.

Excerpt:

I’ll put it this way. If I had the choice of being waterboarded by a third party or having my fingers smashed one at a time by a sledgehammer, I’d take the fingers, no question.

It’s horrible, terrible, inhuman torture. I can hardly imagine worse. I’d prefer permanent damage and disability to experiencing it again. I’d give up anything, say anything, do anything.

The Spanish Inquisition knew this. It was one of their favorite methods.

You and I are paying with our taxes for this to happen to human beings.

This is currently happening to those designated as “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay and at secret prisons run by the CIA around the world whose existence was confirmed by Bush in September 2006.

You are an “enemy combatant” if the Executive branch of our United States says you are. The Military Commisions Act of 2006 removes from “enemy combatants” the right of habeas corpus, meaning that you are not allowed to know the “evidence” against you, you are not afforded a speedy trial, and other fundamental liberties that were previously guaranteed to American citizens by the Constitution.

You can be named an “enemy combatant” tomorrow if that serves the Executive. So could I. If this law is not reversed, it will be used for suppression of dissent.