Senator Leahy's Big Lie

On January 30, Sen. Patrick Leahy made the following statement during an oversight hearing with Attorney General Michael Mukasey:

"It is not enough to say that waterboarding is not currently authorized. Torture and illegality have no place in America. We should not delay beginning the process of restoring America’s role in the struggle for liberty and human dignity. Tragically, this administration has so twisted America’s role, law and values that our own State Department, our military officers and, apparently, America’s top law enforcement officer, are now instructed by the White House not to say that waterboarding is torture and illegal. Never mind that waterboarding has been recognized as torture for the last 500 years. Never mind that President Teddy Roosevelt properly prosecuted Americans soldiers for this more than 100 years ago. Never mind that we prosecuted Japanese soldiers for waterboarding Americans during World War II."

What our soldiers did to Filipinos during the Philippine-American War and what the Japanese did to our troops during World War II was the "water cure," not waterboarding. According to Wikipedia:

"Water cure is a form of water torture in which the victim is forced to drink large quantities of water in a short time, resulting in gastric distension, water intoxication, and possibly death.

"Often the victim has the mouth forced or wedged open, the nose closed with pincers and a funnel or strip of cloth forced down the throat. The victim has to drink all the water (or other liquids such as bile or urine) poured into the funnel to avoid drowning. The stomach fills until near bursting, and is sometimes beaten until the victim vomits and the torture begins again."

That is far different from waterboarding. If Leahy had any integrity, he would apologize for suggested that the water cure and waterboarding are the same thing.