Gibson: It’s Not Torture Because I Say So? It’s Torture Because The Law Says So.

John Gibson wrote a column for FOX News yesterday that I’d like you to read in its entirety:

I hope you watched “The O’Reilly Factor” Wednesday night. Bill had an interview with Brian Ross, ABC News investigative reporter and once upon a time the same thing for NBC News.

Ross’ independent investigation has established a certain set of facts which every American should be aware of, and O’Reilly did a great job of drawing it out and getting it all on the record so there can be no further argument.

Here it is: The special interrogation techniques that were used on the 9/11 plotters we had in secret CIA prisons — the techniques erroneously called torture by Human Rights Watch and others — those techniques work.

They worked on all 14 of these 9/11 detainees and each of those detainees gave up valuable information as a result of those techniques.

They were the items I described earlier in the week, including induced hypothermia, belly slaps, and sound assaults. And here’s the big one: waterboarding.

People call it torture. As Ross described it, waterboarding sounds unpleasant, and since no one could stand it for longer than a couple minutes, I might say very unpleasant. But I hardly think it is torture.

However, here’s the important point: It worked. It worked so well American interrogators were given information on a hijacking plot that was supposed to crash an airliner into the Library Tower in downtown Los Angeles. Unless that crash occurred on Sunday morning at 6:00, it would have killed thousands.

These are results certified independently by Brian Ross of ABC News. Multiple sources, some of whom opposed the techniques, confirmed the results.

Yes, we’re Americans and we don’t torture. These special interrogation techniques are not torture and they work.

Let’s hope the deal between the president and Sen. McCain today allows American interrogators to continue to use techniques which have proven to work.

Especially since they are not torture. Not, not, not torture.

It’s not just not torture, John Gibson claims. It’s not, not, not torture.

But why is that so?

Because John Gibson says so?

John Gibson seems awfully interested in getting you to think that waterboarding is not torture. Awfully, awfully, awfully interested.

But John Gibson is wrong. Just plain wrong. Documentably wrong.

Let’s look at Ross’ description of the waterboarding carried out by the CIA and authorized by the White House — authorized by George W. Bush:

Fourteen high value prisoners they have kept in secret prisoners and they have used these coercive techniques, that is the most harshest of the treatments and that’s where a man is put upside down, they put a cellophane or a cloth over his mouth, they pour water, it gives the impression that the person is drowning. Now, some people liken it to a mock execution. It’s very tough to withstand. When the CIA officers who are trained in these interrogations go through it themselves, some of them couldn’t last more than 35, 40 seconds.

Here’s another description of the technique from Brian Ross and Richard Esposito’s written article:

The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.

According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaeda’s toughest prisoner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last between two and two-and-a-half minutes before begging to confess.

“The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law,” said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch.

“it gives the impression that the person is drowning.”

“mock execution.”

“terrifying fear of drowning.”

“When the CIA officers who are trained in these interrogations go through it themselves, some of them couldn’t last more than 35, 40 seconds… an average of 14 seconds before caving in.”

“the person believes they are being killed.”

In other words, waterboarding is used to create a threat to the individual of imminent death, a threat so strong that even toughened CIA officers crack after 35-40 seconds. The Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel’s definitive December 30, 2004 memo written to explicitly restate the definition of torture, reads (regarding 18 USC 2340-2340A):

1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under 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 harm caused by or resulting from–

(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain 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;

George W. Bush’s own Justice Department defines torture in such a way as to clearly make waterboarding qualify as torture, and therefore to clearly make waterboarding against the law.

The Republican blogosphere is crowing right now that “waterboarding works.” I don’t care if waterboarding works. Peeling someone’s skin off and piercing their eyeballs might work, but civilized people do not do this. Terrorists do this. In fact, the act of torture is a pretty good operational definition of a terrorist, since it is an act designed to obtain ends through the application of sheer terror. To the extent that Americans are not terrorists, Americans do not torture. Even if a good portion of the American people would like to torture or, to be more accurate, would like someone else to torture people for them in some faraway room so that they never have to know about it…

…well, even that doesn’t matter. Because torture is against the law. Waterboarding legally qualifies as torture. Waterboarding is against the law.

And if you believe in the United States of America, then that’s right where it stops. The government cannot break the law with impunity. Period. That’s what makes this land different from the Stasi state of East Germany. That’s what defines this land America. If you do not believe in this land as a nation of laws, then you do not believe in the dream of America.

I’ll say it again: Torture is against the law. Waterboarding legally qualifies as torture. Waterboarding is against the law. America is a nation of laws.