Talk Radio Host “Mancow” Muller — known for some crazy publicity stunts — decided to get waterboarded to see what it’s like and to share it with his listeners. He didn’t like it. Read more about it below, see a photo and watch the video.
Mancow Mueller
From anti-war activists, journalists, and now talk radio hosts, haven’t there been just scads of private citizens who have ‘voluntarily’ got waterboarded just to demonstrate how awful it is? Though I don’t know the actual number, I know, it’s wayyyy more then the 3 actual terrorists who experienced it at Gitmo.
Erich “Mancow” Mueller was waterboarded for the purpose of publicity and discussion on his show and has quickly decided it’s definitely torture. (Of course, I’ve listened to Mancow and I think HE is torture but I digress.) His waterboarding was done in a controlled environment and he lasted 6 seconds.
“It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Mancow said. “It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back… It was instantaneous… and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture.”
All of these people who want to experience it so they can decide if it rises to the level of torture are missing the greater point aren’t they?
Of course waterboarding is awful. It’s SUPPOSE to be. The greater point to determine is whether it is necessary and effective in our ability to gather information that will stop catastrophic terrorist attacks. And for those who were there, intimately involved with the terrorists, the answer is an unwavering yes.
You can watch the video of Mancow Muller being waterboarded below the jump.
Mancow Muller Waterboarded Video
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:35 pm
God forgive us for turning into a nation of wimps. We have a president who shaves his chest and manly men afraid of the water. Nuf said.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Thankfully, it was awful enough to get the information needed to spare American lives. That’s a good thing – and all three terrorists are alive today.
Good analysis.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
i have heard the average terrorist gives up after 14 seconds. he is only a dj after all.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:33 pm
the bad thing, in my view, is not that they had it done to them once. mancow seems fine.
it is the 183 times that is the bad part.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Bet the folks who post here can go a minute at least
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Tom, that’s a great point. Can you imagine Obama getting water-boarded? He would last 5 seconds and squeal like a scared pig. What a president!
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
You can acutally feel proud, as an American, that we subjected our enemmies to a form of torture, to get information?
I cannot. Had it been the devil and his demons themselves, had we saved ten million lives, it would still be wrong.
Oh, but I know. REPUBLICANS did it! Ergo, how COULD it have been wrong??? Had it been them Dems., well now, you’d be singing the opposite tune. I jest knows it.
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:26 am
The little whimp Hannity joins the 2 fat watery girlymen, Cheney and Limbaigh, in extoiling the virtures of a gang of thugs beating up and torturing 1 helpless bound and shackled guy. Actually that’s the definition of cowardice and the only way these 3 draft dodging cowards would face down anyone.
J Russell
Illinois
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:35 am
PLEASE LEARN TO SPELL THE WORD ‘DEFINITELY’ IF YOU’RE GOING TO TRY TO INTELLIGENTLY ARGUE YOUR STANCE. It makes you look dumb.
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:41 am
Jammer, trying to be the spelling police and not knowing the difference between definition and definitely I believe DEFINES stupidity.
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:59 am
Hey Jammer it must be tough to be so perfect! Thanks for the spell check help, I made the correction.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:09 am
Jim Russell
“a gang of thugs beating up and torturing 1 helpless bound and shackled guy”
Are you calling our military and CIA a gang of thugs and KSM and his 2 terrorist buddies who killed 3000 Americans a helpless bound and shackled guy????????
“3 draft dodging cowards”
Joe Biden took 5 student deferments (same as Cheney) as well and later got classified as ineligible except in case of national emergency for asthma even though his bio emphasizes his sports abilities in his youth.
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/02/bidens-deferments/
The media vilified Cheney over his deferments — nothing on Biden. heh.
You also mentioned Hannity. He wasn’t old enough for the draft was he? It ended in ‘73 or so.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:31 am
Jammer.
I suppose thats your answer to ridding America of its threat from radical Islam ?
Lets go round the blogs and check everyones spelling otherwise no one will get the message that a bunch of sexually frustrated deranged camel jockeys want us all dead no matter what.
You are the true idiot if simple mistakes that happen a million times a day are what concerns you most.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:48 am
What happened ? How’d we get to this point ?
I always thought torture was getting bamboo splinters shoved up under your finger nails, being impaled on a thorny trunk, having your scrotum and nipples hooked up to the outlet in the wall, having your eyes taped open and having to watch Obama speechs and here we are defining one of the mildest forms of scare tactics as torture ?
If any one of you moonbat nay sayers had a guy in front of you who said he knew exactly when and where your mom, sister, brother, or father was going to be raped and murdered would you waterboard him to get the info ?
As was the case with KSM he taunted the officials by saying, (I’m paraphrasing) “just wait and see” or “you will see” or something to that effect and was claearly giving the impression that he had info relating to future attacks.
When you’ve got the guy in your hands that planned the last attack killing 3000 saying theres another one coming you mean to tell me you a-holes have a problem with pouring water down his nose to get the answer ?
You’re worried about our reputation ?
WTF kinda thinking is that ?
What really ruins a countrys reputation and image is when it lets 3000 of its citizens die because they want to uphold some fricken righteous portrait of themselves to the world.
Disgusting, guys like Jim and his ilk… disgusting.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:51 am
Two things.
ONE: The purpose of torture is to coerce confessions. The problem is, once you get someone into that much pain and fear, they’ll confess to -anything-. The information we got is almost guaranteed to be as reliable as the inside of a fortune cookie — you will say ANYTHING to make that sh*t stop.
TWO: “It’s SUPPOSE to be.” “Suppose” does not fit in this context. gb2grammar school.
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:15 am
I admire Mancow—not just because he subjected himself to water boarding, but because he was man enough to admit that he was wrong, and deemed it “torture” in spite of his conservative leanings. Good for you Mancow
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 am
I love the tired cliche of “the ticking time bomb”. There has never been such a scenario in American history. Furthermore the ticking time bomb misses a couple central points. First, the Right misses that if your in a ticking bomb scenario your intelligence failed miserably. In 9/11 there wasn’t an intel failure, there was failure of the Bush administration to act on the intel they had. Second, there are hundreds of years of information that says torture produces false confessions. Going back to the Spanish Inquistion waterboarding (torture) was used to get heretics to “confess” that whatever idea they expounded was against the church and/or wrong.
I don’t understand why people keep saying torture works and the CIA had to waterboard two men over 260 times between them. The SERE program that the EIT program was modelled after was used by Chinese COMMUNISTS to gather false confessions. Is this what it means to be “American” now? To be patriotic we have to used methods that were favorites of our communist enemies? The KGB used sleep deprivation on it’s enemies as well. Is that what true “Americans” want? You red blooded “Americans” are more communist than the President in office that you hate so much. You “patriots” are embracing methods our enemies used. Do you think Reagan would allow EITs to be used when Reagan referred to the KGB as part of that “Evil Empire”?
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:42 am
Who Would Jesus Torture?
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 am
Pete, Jammer, Anonymous, Eddie.
I’d love to know if any of you self righteous individuals actually know what you’re talking about or are you just assuming that enhanced interrigation has never worked ?
Maybe you’d care to explain why it is that Obama was so quick to release the methods of interrogation used but still wont let us see the results of those methods and what they rendered ?
If these methods are so unreliable as you say them why have they been used in succesfully twarting many attacks in the past and helped us gain info dating back as far man has been at war ?
We know for a fact that the interrogation of KSM led to the arrest of others that when themselves were interrogated led to uncovering plans and plots being planned at the time.
These guys have methods of knowing if you’re going to be a liar or be sincere.
Eddie, your absolutely wrong in they way you present your case by only giving examples only of when you think torture didnt work. That kind of presentation only leads one to believe that you’re not really interested in the truth but more interested in fulfilling your addiction to ideological bigotry.
Obama’s intelligence director Blair has said himself that “High-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the Al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country.” Bushs former intel man Michael Hayden said, “The use of these techniques against these terrorists really did make us safer, it really did work.”
In addition during World War II the Gestapo used torture on the Brits special operations executive agents, the top-secret organization dedicated to sabotage and subversion behind axis lines who most of ended up telling the Gestapo flight times, safe house locations and host of other goodies. The French also have been on record as using torture with success in Algeria.
” love the tired cliche of “the ticking time bomb”. There has never been such a scenario in American history.”
How the hell would you know ?
“that the EIT program was modelled after was used by Chinese COMMUNISTS to gather false confessions.”
Obviously you’re way off on your perspective here because we werent looking for “confessions”.
These guys proudly bragged about what they’d done and were telling us theres more to come.
Get it ?
You say theres never been a ticking time bomb scenario ?
When KSM said there would be more attacks to follow what the hell would you call that ?
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
LOL @anonymous! Hey Micky, you didn’t answer his question!
Personally, as I’ve said on another post, I think we just need to move forward. One question for Micky though, and I apologize b/c I’m sure you’ve answered this and I’ve just missed it. Let’s assume you are correct and water boarding is not torture, and was perfectly legal. Are you against things that are clearly torture, or is your position that everything is on the table? Just curious.
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
Let me get this straight micky… You are using a program that the most hated regime in history used as justification for your arguement? Really… You’re seriously going to use the N*zi’s as weapon for your arguement? Also you accuse me of cherry picking my arguement but you just did the same with the only two people to advocate your twisted opinion. To say we weren’t looking for ‘confessions’ is silly; that’s the point to torture!!!! You torture people to get what they know!! You can call it information, confessions or whatever but that’s why governments have tortured. Unless you torture for the fun of it you torture for information that you want to hear. Also, please ignore the fact that the FBI pulled all it’s interrogators from working with the CIA in regards to EITs. Ignore that Ali Soufan (FBI interrogator) who had interrogated many terrorists, got useful info and never tortured anyone, said that as soon as Zubaydah was tortured he shut up. Under normal methods Soufan got KSM’s name in an hour. If torture works then why do it 183 times one man? Did he yield useful info 183 times? Do you believe that? If there was a ticking bomb it would’ve gone off in that month of waterboarding…. Ignore that fact too. But what should I expect from someone that would use Nazi Germany as proof that his arguement is right. Bush had 9/11 happen on his watch and he kept us safe… Greatest attack on american soil since the Civil War but he kept us safe. 9/11 was blind luck in that the terrorist hit us with an administration that was so dogmatic they thought we were in invincible. Just like Cheney is so dogmatic in his defense (and your defense) that torture works. With people like you and Cheney it won’t be long before the rest of the world sees us the way we see Nazi Germany. You seriosuly used Nazi Germany for supporting your arguement. What’s next? Let me guess, you think eugenics is a great idea too?
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:18 pm
“LOL @anonymous! Hey Micky, you didn’t answer his question!
Its not funny, its stupid and presented without any thought deeper than his navel.
We are fighting an enemy who’s hatred is based on their theological belief that we are to be exterminated regardless of anything.
So, if we present the teachings of Christ, our own theology, we are surely doomed.
The worst wars in history have taken place exactly due to that kind of thinking. War needs to be fought on a practical pragmatic basis and not one of ideological theology which is exactly what our enemy is doing.
These guys are asking themselves every minute of their life what Allah would do and since their belief is that of a twisted hijacked theology that constitutes nothing more than insanity we cant really approach it any other way than you would a raccoon on the final stages of rabies.
Jesus being the compassionate man he is/was would probably put the racoon out of its misery if anything and see it as a threat to the village. Now, what’s really funny is that no one has ever answered the question I presented which is a hell of a lot more realistic than thinking you’d get some heads up from Jesus anytime during an interrogation.
Also, we have separation of church and state for the one reason that we never base our national security decisions on questions like the one anonymous asked.
Water boarding was “perfectly legal” during the time periods in question so we can put the legality issue aside and realize that we are actually the most ethical and moral military the world has ever seen.
Unless the detainee has info that he himself (such as KSM said he did) we should go through a process of elimination starting with the least threatening methods first.
I’m really, doesn’t it all depend on the quality and value of the individual detainee ?
We don’t just torture anyone because they’re wearing a turban, do we ? We interrogate those who’ve either confessed to having info or ones that others have said are in a position to have valuable info and go forward as far as we need to depending on the value of that detainee, what kind of standing he has within the organization.
Once we’ve got the info that is sufficient in preventing said attack that’s when we stop interrogating. I don’t think we should draw blood or create permanent injury but hey, if the guy says he knows what’s going to happen and when then by the time I get done with him he’s going to be the most scared individual on this planet. I promise you.
I know this is going to come off as kinda weird and personal maybe, but at the hands of drug dealers I’ve actually been tortured.
I was tied to a chair, had a gun to my head, slapped, punched, kicked, got beat up pretty good, a tourniquet placed tightly around my neck, had ice picks put in each ear and right in the ducts of my eyes where just the slightest pressure would blind or deafen me. At the same time had people pi$$ in my face and bottles of urine poured over my head, stripped naked, driven miles into the desert and let go.
I’m 250 lbs 6 feet tall and I cried like a f*ckin baby, begged my a$$ off and told them all they wanted to know.
Now, I’m no jihadist with the amount of faith that our enemy has in his God nor do I think I’ll get the virgins or anything so I can see these guys holding out a little longer maybe, especially at the threat of being killed by their own for squealing but I can safely say that I really wish I’d of been water boarded that day instead. I still would of told em who they were looking for and worry about dealing with retaliation later. Anything just to live another day.
So, obviously at some time these guys decided that martyrdom wasn’t really where it was at because by getting a little water up their noses was all it really took.
Like I said, and I wish more people would take this into account because the debates would be less lengthy and stupid. The fact is that we don’t just aggressively interrogate anyone for confessions because they were caught with or around radicals. Cheney and others have all said that we only go after the ones who’ve confessed to having info or those that have been turned on by others. We don’t need there confessions.
Just now in the background I heard Obama saying from yesterday that he categorically rejects that these are the only techniques available that can give us info, and that he’s seen the intelligence.
Here’s my problem. What other methods would he use ?
He’s never blessed us with this answer, has he ?
Also, what is the intelligence he says that he saw ? He can show us the methods but not the results of those methods ?
That’s an insult to any clear thinking mans intelligence, really, get real.
Sorry, its not me or anyone on the right who has to answer on f*ckin question.
You guys are in charge, you need to come up with the answers, solutions. Instead of running around like a bunch of idiots b*tching about only what you think wont or doesn’t work rambling off all your righteous idealistic idiocy and still have no clear solution to any of our national security problems but to revert back to the tried and true methods enacted by GW Bush.
Bush wanted to close Gitmo also, why don’t you guys ever mention this, HUH ?
Bush was presented with exactly the same set of problems that Obama is holding right now.
And please, spare me this bullsh*t Obama ran off that the problem was opening Gitmo in the first place. Just where the hell were we supposed to put these guys beginning 7 1/2 years ago ? And so what if we put them in Bagrahm or just north of it ? What difference is that going to make in our detention policies ?
You guys had better start coming up with some viable answers instead of doing all this f*ckin fishing and witch hunting and dressing up in front of the world so that you look all cool and ethical or else were all going to look f*cking cool, ethical, and dead !
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Waterboarding isn’t torture. All the special forces go through it as part of routine training. Yawn. Liberals are so illogical. Next thing you know they will call eating brussels sprouts “torture.” Words have meaning. Use them properly.
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
McCain.
It would only be torture if the sprouts were not organic, or free range, or some sh*t like that.
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
“Who Would Jesus Torture?”
Hmm…
I’m willing to bet that when Mohammed Atta was about 100 ft. from impact he looked at the tower and asked himself if this was what Jesus would do.