Getting Waterboarded for Al Gore
Katie Connolly
Issue date: 10/25/06 Section: KSG News
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In a recently aired segment for Al Gore's cable channel Current TV, former Navy Seal Kaj Larsen (MPP2) pays two ex-US Army Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) instructors $800 to demonstrate waterboarding, with Larsen himself as the victim.
Waterboarding, a coercive interrogation technique allegedly used by the US interrogators on terror suspects, simulates the feeling of drowning. Waterboarding is considered torture under the Geneva Conventions.
In the Current TV segment, Larsen, clad in Gitmo-style orange overalls, is taken to a basement, blindfolded, cuffed and pinned down. A wet cloth is shoved in his mouth and covers his nose, while water is poured on his face. Larsen's head is deliberately lower than his chest. Every time he inhales, he breathes in moisture, creating a feeling of suffocation.
Larsen had two motivations for submitting to what is arguably torture.
"First I was concerned about the moral dimension of using this on suspects in the War on Terror and whether this was ethical or not," Larsen said. "Secondly, if we are using these sorts of techniques, are they eroding our moral credibility around the world? I was thinking of my buddies who are still serving - if we don't abide by the Geneva Conventions, what sort of standards can we hold others actors, who may be capturing Americans overseas, to?"
Larsen believes it's important for the public to understand what is meant by coercive interrogation.
"Everybody is talking about it, but nobody really knows what it is. So I wanted to put this out there in the court of public opinion and let Americans decide for themselves if this is the kind of behavior we should be engaging in."
Former US Army Captain Sean Kreyling (MPA-MC) believes unequivocally that waterboarding is a form of torture.
"My gut reaction to the video was that it was poignant, in the sense that this needs to be understood better and to be seen," Kreyling said.
Kreyling believes that Larsen's piece is an important intervention in the torture debate, saying that it brings a sense of realism to the discourse that so far has been absent.
Waterboarding, a coercive interrogation technique allegedly used by the US interrogators on terror suspects, simulates the feeling of drowning. Waterboarding is considered torture under the Geneva Conventions.
In the Current TV segment, Larsen, clad in Gitmo-style orange overalls, is taken to a basement, blindfolded, cuffed and pinned down. A wet cloth is shoved in his mouth and covers his nose, while water is poured on his face. Larsen's head is deliberately lower than his chest. Every time he inhales, he breathes in moisture, creating a feeling of suffocation.
Larsen had two motivations for submitting to what is arguably torture.
"First I was concerned about the moral dimension of using this on suspects in the War on Terror and whether this was ethical or not," Larsen said. "Secondly, if we are using these sorts of techniques, are they eroding our moral credibility around the world? I was thinking of my buddies who are still serving - if we don't abide by the Geneva Conventions, what sort of standards can we hold others actors, who may be capturing Americans overseas, to?"
Larsen believes it's important for the public to understand what is meant by coercive interrogation.
"Everybody is talking about it, but nobody really knows what it is. So I wanted to put this out there in the court of public opinion and let Americans decide for themselves if this is the kind of behavior we should be engaging in."
Former US Army Captain Sean Kreyling (MPA-MC) believes unequivocally that waterboarding is a form of torture.
"My gut reaction to the video was that it was poignant, in the sense that this needs to be understood better and to be seen," Kreyling said.
Kreyling believes that Larsen's piece is an important intervention in the torture debate, saying that it brings a sense of realism to the discourse that so far has been absent.
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