And speaking of Ashcroft

Okay, everybody stay cool and queue up nicely -- no pushing, no shoving, no bullying your way to the front -- just a nice long organized lineup to get in on a piece of this:

"Last night, former Attorney General John Ashcroft delivered an address on national security at the University of Colorado." [...]

"Ashcroft also responded to questions from the audience. The first question came from a woman who asked if Ashcroft would be willing to be subjected to waterboarding.“The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do,” he said."

The weasel has landed

Whackjob Coulter wannabe Rachel Marsden, cut loose from the Toronto Sun this week to spin wildly around the media-o-sphere like a rapidly-deflating hot-air balloon, came in for a landing exactly where many of us predicted she would: Canada Free Press, aka Canada Wingnut Daily. Good good, that's just the right spot for her writing (if by "writing", you mean vapidly hysterical tripe tossed at the page like monkey-feces). She may have contributed to CFP before now, who knows -- at least now it's "home".

Her CFP column today shrieks hysterically about losing the war on Teh Islamofascism, and cites her recent firing as proof that people just don't get it -- How To Do War. (Because RM is an expert military strategist, doncha know.) I must have missed the point when the Rules Of Engagement were revised to include the media doling out regular doses of the paranoid screeching of batshit-crazy howler monkeys... tsk. My bad!!!

The Not-So-Divine Ms. M then revisits her waterboarding fetish, comparing the torture technique to competitive swim training bobbing for apples at a kids' Hallowe'en party:

Last week, in my weekly Sun Media column, I argued that it’s really not that big of a deal to make terror suspects like 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed essentially do what any kid does at Halloween when he bobs for apples--except in the presence of the CIA, and with the prize in the terrorist’s case being lifesaving information.

Yes yes, and as we all know, it's been proven that torture is an effective way to get information. Bobbing for apples? Well, that's not what Malcolm Nance says, and he's ex-military and has personally supervised waterboarding training sessions. And it's certainly not what former assistant AG Daniel Levin says, and he's actually been waterboarded. It's not too hard to figure out who has more credibility.

But hey, it's Canada Free Press: who's reading? I mean, who's reading that's relevant to anything? CFP readers are about as relevant as CFP writers.

Update: If you haven't already, read Dave's take.

I love the smell of (metaphorical) napalm in the morning

...smells like victory:

Controversial Sun Media columnist Rachel Marsden is history.

Axing her column comes none too soon for a large segment of Toronto Sun readers who protested her pro torture comments Oct. 31 during Wolf Blitzer's CNN show and in her column on Monday.

As blogger Dennis Earl noted Wednesday afternoon, most Sun Media online traces of Rachel's Monday column were gone, although it could still be read on canoe.ca.

So we put it to Sun sources - is she toast?

"It's true, Rachel will no longer be writing for the Sun," a source told TSF last night."

Rachel "Torture Is A Swimmingly Good Idea" Marsden has a message on her website for all of us dhimmis:

Attention terrorists and Islamofascists: You can now read the Toronto Sun without having your delicate sensibilities offended, as my weekly column is no longer with Sun Media. I am exploring US syndication and other venues for the column. In the meantime, you can continue to read it here at RachelMarsden.com every Monday. - Rachel, November 7/07."

Freedom of speech is one thing; stupidity of speech -- in the media -- is another. The media has been used and abused to spread this kind of divisive hyperbole for too long. Our 4th Estate is essential to the democratic process; we need information, not bullshit, if we're to make it work.

Good work to everyone who objected. See? We can do it. Oh, and Rachel? McBye.

(h/t matt)

For the confused (ie. Toronto Sun)

Here's a little primer on the so-called "coercive interrogation" (read: torture) technique known as waterboarding, from a Navy instructor, Malcolm Nance, who personally supervised hundreds of waterboarding sessions done to teach Navy Seals how to resist torture:

"1. Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that the will to survive requires them accept and understand that they may be subjected to torture, but that America is better than its enemies and it is one’s duty to trust in your nation and God, endure the hardships and return home with honor.

2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.

Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.

Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.

Call it “Chinese Water Torture,” “the Barrel,” or “the Waterfall,” it is all the same. Whether the victim is allowed to comply or not is usually left up to the interrogator. Many waterboard team members, even in training, enjoy the sadistic power of making the victim suffer and often ask questions as an after thought. These people are dangerous and predictable and when left unshackled, unsupervised or undetected they bring us the murderous abuses seen at Abu Ghraieb, Baghram and Guantanamo. No doubt, to avoid human factors like fear and guilt someone has created a one-button version that probably looks like an MRI machine with high intensity waterjets." (emphasis mine)

Does that sound like competitive swim training to you?

(from TPM Muckraker)

What happened to Marsden's torture editorial?

It was listed on that page yesterday. Wish I had a screencap, but I know what I saw.

Odd, she's not even listed with the rest of the columnists on the Sun's homepage today... she was there yesterday.

Could it be?

Could it be???

D'oh!

Taxi to the Dark Side

The documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" debuts this weekend at the Tribeca film festival. The movie examines the death by torture of an Afghan detainee and explores the legalization and authorization of torture by the Bush administration. It's something that should be of deep concern to any civilized human being, but even moreso to Canadians now that it appears Canada may be complicit in enabling it in Afghanistan.

Watch the trailer.