Hitchens — I know waterboarding is torture

Hitchens, though still supporting the war in Iraq, has never been one to write blank checks to George W. Bush. And, he still is a progressive on most civil liberties issues.

So, he let himself be waterboarded. And then, while trying to give the best interpretation to pro-waterboarders, concluded it is torture:

I call as my main witness Mr. Malcolm Nance. Mr. Nance is not what you call a bleeding heart. In fact, speaking of the coronary area, he has said that, in battlefield conditions, he “would personally cut bin Laden’s heart out with a plastic M.R.E. spoon.” …

I passed one of the most dramatic evenings of my life listening to his cold but enraged denunciation of the adoption of waterboarding by the United States. …

I had only a very slight encounter on that frontier, but I still wish that my experience were the only way in which the words “waterboard” and “American” could be mentioned in the same (gasping and sobbing) breath.

Read all about Hitchens crossing that frontier.