John Yoo dazzles Jon Stewart with facts on torture vs. waterboarding

John Yoo, the Bush Justice department lawyer who authored the key memos on how far Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could be pushed legally to make him talk, was on “The Daily Show” three nights ago.

The interview by comedian Jon Stewart is on YouTube, or as it’s called in this case, “YooTube.” It’s almost funny how Stewart, finally confronting the lawyer who said controlled waterboarding is legal in wartime, can’t come up with even a mild counterpunch.

The blogosphere is abuzz about Yoo’s knockout (which did not violate the Geneva Conventions in any way).

Christopher Beam in Slate:

How did he do it? It’s a question John Yoo has been getting a lot lately. How did he manage to outwit Jon Stewart? (“He slipped through my fingers,” Stewart recalled after Yoo’s recent appearance on The Daily Show. “It was like interviewing sand.”)

Easy, says Yoo. “I’ve spent my whole career learning to settle down unruly college students who have not done the reading.”

Harm done? Like most of those who assert indignantly that waterboarding KSM was illegal torture, Stewart hasn’t read Yoo’s memos. The reading is dull, but it’s readable. In those memos, Yoo points out that the treaties and other laws against torture do not specifically rule out waterboarding terrorists. The laws say a prisoner of war may not be subjected to treatment that would permanently harm him physically or mentally. That’s where the real debate begins.

Waterboarding does look like torture. I don’t know whether it has a permanently harmful mental effect.  I don’t know exactly how it was administered to the three al-Qaida terrorists.

The whole thing is no simple legal matter, and as Stewart demonstrated, it’s no laughing matter, either.

Frank Warner

Comments

[Kevin]

I've got a new idea. Why don't we torture the ##%^ (that was the f-word) out of every non-American we catch trying to kill people? I mean people who are trying to kill but are not tied to a government?

It might result in great intelligence. On the other hand, it might not, but it would be great justice.

Oh, and don't try the tired line that if we tortured bad guys then the bad guys would torture our guys when they capture them. Because they always torture our guys anyway.

[Brendan Baker]

Except the bad guys don't "torture" they hang, maim, slit throats, etc.!!!