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Interview: Ed Clay, MMA Trainer and Water Boarding Victim (He Volunteered!)
Ed Clay, MMA trainer, is used to physical pain. He has not fought for eight years, but
still trains MMA fighters, and still gets knocked around. And Ed Clay believes that water
boarding is torture. He has a unique insight into water boarding, as he recently allowed
himself to undergo the “enhanced interrogation”. He and I agree-it’s not enhanced
interrogation.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Ed Clay the evening of November 17th, the day I first
saw the You Tube video of this event. As a mother, I was horrified to watch a young man
go through this. As an American, I was disgusted that anyone, any American, would look
at this practice and say it is anything other than torture.
Ed Clay allowed himself to be water boarded after he heard the comments made by
Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum during the most recent Republican
debate. He found their statements “ignorant” and wanted to prove how wrong they
were. Ed posted comments about his first water boarding experience, and many people
suggested that he video tape it. So, with a concussion, he submitted his body to another
round of torture. His chosen “safety” phrase was Patriot Act, because like many of us, he
believes that one document destroyed our liberties more than any other.
Ed told me he was physically exhausted after Round 2, primarily because of the
concussion. When you watch the video, you will hear his “interrogators” state that they
are going easy on him. Ed did not receive the same level of torture that a prisoner of war
would receive at the hands of our intelligence community. It’s still extremely hard to
watch as he struggles against the wet shirt shoved into his open mouth and water runs
into his nose and down his throat. He told me it felt a little like drowning.
Here is the video:
“The Constitution protects people, not the government” Ed told me, and he is dismayed
to see many people no longer seem to realize that. He pointed out that “no good
information comes from torture”, yet people running for president call it “enhanced
interrogation”. I asked Ed Clay if, after everything he’s experienced, he believes water
boarding is torture. He said, without hesitation, yes. Ed and I agreed that it was a nice
surprise when both Ron Paul and John Huntsman had the courage of their convictions
to denounce water boarding, especially in the face of so much support by their fellow
candidates. Whatever your political leanings, you have to give Paul and Huntsman points
for being honest.
Ed Clay was extremely gracious, open and honest about his feelings, not only about his
experience being water boarded but his motivation for doing so. It is always refreshing
to find someone with the guts to put their money where their mouth is, and Ed Clay did
exactly that. Now, will Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum please step
up? I doubt it, how about you?
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8 Responses to Interview: Ed Clay, MMA Trainer and Water Boarding Victim (He Volunteered!)
Ennealogic
Nov. 18th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
If waterboarding is an okay thing to do to anyone, as certain GOP hopefuls blithely suggest, perhaps we should demand that they submit to this method of interrogation themselves to prove they are capable of holding the office of President.
After all, what if one of them were elected, and subsequently captured by terrorists? Surely they would be waterboarded until they revealed the codes to the nuclear football, and they have to know how to withstand it!
EmmaLib
Nov. 18th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
I think every representative in our government who believes water-boarding is not torture should be forced to under go what Ed Clay volunteered to do…and by a military person who instructed that this person they are water-boarding is actually a home grown terrorist from within… let’s see if they agree after a day of water-boarding, because we know terrorists are subjected to this over and over again!
Paul
Nov. 18th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Huh…if it’s not torture, why did we prosecute the Japanese for doing it to US soldiers? Hypocritical fuckers.
“Twenty-one years earlier, in 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying out another form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian. The subject was strapped on a stretcher that was tilted so that his feet were in the air and head near the floor, and small amounts of water were poured over his face, leaving him gasping for air until he agreed to talk.”
www.washingtonpost.com/wp...
DannyEastVillage
Nov. 18th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
it’s cowards who never served in the military–still less in a war–that “led” (or should I say, blathered and lied?) our way into war some 10 years ago; and how a new roster of cowards will say with stridency that waterboarding is not torture. What a sty of swine the republican party is.
john
Nov. 18th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
anybody remeber a few years back… when Don Imus had the slot that Mourning Joe (sp) has now on MSNBC.. one of his buddys Mandog, Manpig, or maybe Manbearpig, volunteered to be waterboarded, claiming it wasnt any big deal..
after nearly drowding he emphatically stated that he had been wrong.. not very often you see a retraction by a right wing radio host.. i seem to remember Hannity making the same claim, but not following through..
(dylexic sans spell checker)
Reynardine
Nov. 18th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Never underwent that, but when I was a little kid, my older sister forced my face underwater a few times. It’s torture.
Bruce2233
Nov. 19th, 2011 at 7:41 am
Things you will never see….a unicorn…the charity sale of Sarah Palins election clothes from 2008…Sean Hannity following through on agreeing to be waterboarded.
john
Nov. 19th, 2011 at 7:06 pm
yeah Hannity musta thought, it was a paid position for the local utility.. wanted to be elected to the water board