[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29776]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WATERBOARDING IS A CRIME

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, it's not as hard as the President would 
like us to believe. Someone reminded me over the weekend of something. 
Here's what he said.
  When the Japanese Army subjected American prisoners of war to 
waterboarding, it was a crime, and those responsible were severely 
punished. After World War II, several Japanese soldiers were convicted 
for waterboarding American and Allied prisoners of war.
  At the trial of his captors, Lieutenant Chase Nielson, one of the 
1942 Army Air Force officers who flew the Doolittle raid over Tokyo, 
was captured by the Japanese, said, ``I was given several types of 
torture. I was given what they call the water cure.''
  He was asked what it felt like when the Japanese soldiers poured the 
water. ``Well, I felt more or less like I was drowning,'' he replied.
  And yet we have an administration complete with Attorneys General and 
designees who aren't sure if waterboarding is a crime. They can check 
the record of war tribunals after World War II, because the rest of the 
world is sure. It was a crime then, and it is a crime today.
  Over the weekend I saw ``Rendition.'' It ought to be required viewing 
for this body.

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