Protesters Do Bad Job of Waterboarding Themselves

As part of the battle over Attorney General Michael Mukasey's confirmation (which was voted out of the Judiciary Committee this morning), there was a little street theater in Washington:

WASHINGTON - Protesters staged a waterboarding yesterday outside the Justice Department, calling for a Senate committee to reject attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey because of his reluctance to define the tactic as torture.

The demonstration came shortly before Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said he would oppose Mukasey during a Senate Judiciary Committee vote set for today on whether the retired judge should be confirmed to lead the Justice Department.

Mukasey's approval was all but assured last week when two Democrats on the panel - Charles Schumer, of New York, and Dianne Feinstein, of California - said they would disregard concerns about his stand on torture and support him.

The demonstration of waterboarding brought a volunteer to retching coughs and tears in four minutes.

"I wanted desperately to scream but I couldn't because as soon as I would - water," said Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, 26, an Iranian-American actor from Maryland. "Water would go through the mouth and through the nose."

Let me tell you, if this actor lasted four minutes, they didn't do it right. A Fox News reporter was subjected to waterboarding by professionals during a videotaped report and lasted barely seconds. Making it last four minutes certainly works better for their political agenda.

In a wildly ironic twist of fate, Sen. Teddy *Hiccup* Kennedy gave an impassioned speech in the Judiciary Committee describing the terror of drowning. Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

I personally come down on the pro-waterboarding side if the method is used in very specific circumstances - primarily with suspects who are believed to have information that, if revealed, could save the lives of Americans from devastating attacks. It is believed that waterboarding captured 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed saved countless lives because of the information that was gained. He wasn't killed or even permanently harmed (as far as I know) - he just had a really bad time for awhile. I can live with that under the circumstances.

Others of my Christian brethren are very much opposed to waterboarding, and I respect their opinions and would encourage you to look at both sides and decide for yourself. Probably the most articulate example would be Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost. You can read his thoughts on waterboarding here.