This is someone who is considering running for President. A college professor and historian.
When Van Susteren asked if waterboarding is torture, Gingrich hemmed and hawed. "I think it's something we shouldn't do," he said, but he qualified his statement, adding, "Lawyers I respect a great deal say it is absolutely within the law. Other lawyers say it absolutely is not. I mean, this is a debatable area." When asked if waterboarding violates international law, Gingrich played dumb:
VAN SUSTEREN: But you said a minute ago that it was torture, waterboarding...
GINGRICH: No, I said it's not something we should do.
VAN SUSTEREN: OK. Is it torture or not?
GINGRICH: I -- I -- I think it's -- I can't tell you.
VAN SUSTEREN: Does it violate the Geneva Convention?
GINGRICH: I honestly don't know.
How is that fellow "Conservative," John McCain, knows that waterboarding is torture and not Gingrich.
But McCain, a former prisoner of war, has repeatedly said that waterboarding is a "horrible torture technique." "One is too much. Waterboarding is torture, period," McCain said last week. Indeed, it is a fact -- and not a matter of "debate" -- that waterboarding is illegal torture. The interrogation tactic violates both U.S. statute and international treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory.
Back in 1997 Gingrich knew what torture was:
As I said in China this spring, there is no place for abuse in what must be considered the family of man. There is no place for torture and arbitrary detention. There is no place for forced confessions. There is no place for intolerance of dissent. While we walked through the Rotunda. I explained to President Jiang how the roots of American rule of law go back more than 700 years, to the signing of the Magna Carta. The foundation of American values, therefore, is not a passing priority or a temporary trend.
If waterboarding is not torture why is Hannity chickening-out in his promise to be interrogated with enhanced methods. Former Communist and noted columnist, Christopher Hitchens, was allowed himself to be waterboarded. What a wuss:
GRODIN: You're for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.
GRODIN: You don't believe it's torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has and talked to me about it.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded so we can get the truth out of you? We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure. ... I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. ... I'll do it for the troops' families.
Keith Olbermann offered him $1,000 for every second he resisted the 'torture technique:'
There is website that offers Hannity charity donations if he keeps his promise to be waterboarded. Don't hold your breath (pun intended).
