Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:30 pm
Jesse Ventura was on Larry King Live last night discussing waterboarding. As a former Navy Seal, Ventura had been waterboarded. He called the tactic torture and drowning. He also volunteered to waterboard Dick Cheney. He said that under waterboarding he could get Cheney to confess to the Sharon Tate murders.
Here is the video courtesy of Think Progress:
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Ventura said, “I was water boarded, so I know — at SERE School, Survival Escape Resistance Evasion. It was a required school you had to go to prior to going into the combat zone, which in my era was Vietnam. All of us had to go there. We were all, in essence — every one of us was water boarded. It is torture.”
Larry King asked him what it was like. Ventura answered, “It’s drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you — I’ll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.”
King added that the people being waterboarded knew that they were not going to drown. Ventura responded, “You don’t know it. If it’s done wrong, you certainly could drown. You could swallow your tongue. You could do a whole bunch of stuff. If it’s it done wrong or — it’s torture, Larry. It’s torture.” We can now add Jesse Ventura’s name to the growing list of experts who say that waterboarding is torture.
I don’t think I have ever heard one former military person who has been waterboarded, not call it torture. I agree with Ventura. If Dick Cheney thinks that it is so great, then he should give it a try. Jesse Ventura is a lot of things, but most of all the man is tough, so if he tells me something is torture, I am inclined to believe him over a former vice president who used 5 deferments to get out of going to Vietnam.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
