Some people who hate the guts and polemics of Christopher Hitchens might be glad to know that he got the waterboarding treatment. But don’t worry, he willingly subjected himself to it to test if waterboarding is indeed torture. All I can say is, duhh! At least Hitchens is empirically ballsy.
"The "official lie" about waterboarding, Hitchens says, is that it
"simulates the feeling of drowning". In fact, "you are drowning – or
rather, being drowned".
"He rehearses the intellectual
arguments, both for ("It’s nothing compared to what they do to us") and
against ("It opens a door that can’t be closed"). But the Hitch’s
thoroughly empirical conclusion is simple. As Vanity Fair’s title puts
it: "Believe me, it’s torture.""
For the sadist in all of us, we can watch the video here.
Thanks to Boingboing for the heads up.
UPDATE: The video is already up in Youtube. That was fast!