Is waterboarding a form of torture? It is a way of getting very important information out of terrorists. There are three main types of interrogations; stress positions, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding. There are three ways to complete waterboarding. The most common form done in the CIA is wrapping a towel around your head or in your mouth, and putting plastic over the face with a whole in the mouth. When you poor water on the persons face it only takes 10-15 seconds until enough water flows into the person lungs and they start to panic. Waterboarding is very dangerous so the CIA always keep a doctor right next to the person in case anything goes wrong. A lot of the human rights groups think that waterboarding is a type of torture. Fewer than 100 people have ever been waterboarded by the CIA. People that are against waterboarding say it can cause dry drowning, damage to the brain and lungs, and broken bones due to struggling. It allowed the government to stop a type of 9/11 attack on Los Angeles, by waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed. They got very important information out of him including; how to find Riduan Isamuddin, and he provided information about Al Qaeda.In January 2009 President Obama prohibited the use of waterboarding. Some people on the left call it torture, and it hurts our reputation all around the world. They also feel this is a tool to encourage the recruiting of terrorist groups who hate Americans. I am only 14, and would have to disagree with the people who think it’s so horrible. In my opinion I think these measures need to be taken in order to receive valuable information to save lives. I think people like Obama, or Palouse would think twice about their opinions against waterboarding if their families had been kidnapped by terrorist groups.
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I really admire Dick Cheney for standing up for his beliefs and values. It seems as though so many politicians have no character, they change their opinions or beliefs based on what the majority of what people want. Dick Cheney defended the CIA’s aggressive interrogations of terrorists. He thought that these interrogations were very important in saving thousands of American lives, and that it would prevent other attacks on us. He then said that waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed also gave us very important information about Al Qaeda. People can judge the way we do things, but the facts speak for themselves. After 9/11 Cheney believed that for the last eight years we had no terrorist attacks because we had arrested most of them. Chaney was completely honest and came out and said he knew about the interrogations being done, but that he was unaware of the CIA scaring terrorist with fake executions, and power drills. Cheney also mentioned that he was alright with the cases going on further than legal authorization, to get more information out of the terrorists. Dick Cheney stated that we have a very good policy, and that democrats are just too soft if they think waterboarding really harsh. He believed that Bush has made good decisions for the right reasons. He was proud to stand by him, and he would continue to do so today and support the same decisions. I felt more secure when Bush was in office, as far as homeland security goes. I felt he did what he needed to do in order to keep our country safe.3madison
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