Will the military have to close SERE training now for the Air Force since it's considered torture?

[Zywiec]

Four legal memos released yesterday by the Justice Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit outline in graphic detail the methods used to interrogate suspected terrorists and include numerous techniques used in SERE training. The techniques outlined in the memos range from sleep deprivation to hand slaps to the face, but perhaps the most severe and controversial is a simulated drowning procedure known as waterboarding.

Bush administration lawyers asserted in these legal opinions that waterboarding is "not physically painful." But Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee also wrote on Aug. 1, 2002, that its use does "constitute a threat of imminent death." He added, "The waterboard is simply a controlled acute episode, lacking the connotation of a protracted period of time generally given to suffering."

The memos point to the thousands of military trainees who have undergone waterboarding during the SERE training. Few reported any lasting mental trauma, the memos say. The absence of such lingering effects, the lawyers argue, shows that the technique did not violate prohibitions against torture. "There is no evidence for such prolonged mental harm in the CIA's experience with the technique, and we understand that it has been used thousands of times (albeit in a somewhat different way) during the military training of United States personnel, without producing any evidence of such harm," one memo notes.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2009/04/17/bush-lawyers-used-us-military-training-to-justify-cia-interrogation-techniques.html

Perhaps there will be some lawsuits coming from the pilots and Special Forces soldiers who suffered being tortured also?

:shrug:

[peace13]

1. Maybe so.

I do think that if my own people are demoing a torture technique on me that it is a little different than when I am at the enemies hand. I can't say for sure though because I have never been waterboarded...yet.

[Mariana]

2. Since servicepeople choose to undergo this training

and can stop the techniques being used on them at any time, I don't think the comparison is valid.

[Zywiec]

3. I doubt there are many service members who walk out of the training

There is a lot of pressure on Soldiers and Airmen not to "bolo" any of the courses they are sent to.

It would be interesting to see what percentage in SERE training actually leave.

[TornadoTN]

4. The pressure is there, but they still have the option and many take it

When you look at many of the programs and training courses that our military uses, it also becomes clear that many of the more elite (Special Forces) or occupations that have a high risk of capture (pilot), that there is an increased pressure TO drop out. They weed out the weaker and less mentally conditioned because they know they are a risk if they were to become captured behind enemy lines. During SEAL, Green Beret, Delta, AFSOC, etc. they are actively pushed to the limit and given clear guidance as to how they can escape and prevent themselves from undergoing any more.

I'd argue that the same standard doesn't apply, since most of those being picked for these roles are well aware of the training involved. It's not exactly a secret that these tactics are applied during training. Prisoners, on the other hand, shouldn't be subjected to this type of treatment since it's immoral and illegal and not part of a voluntary process to undergo.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Where did you get the idea tha SERE is voluntary?

You will break, its the reason you are there.

[Zywiec]

7. I believe the course is voluntary

however, even though they may be tortured, in their back of the mind they know they won't be killed and will eventually be released. I guess that's not the case for a prisoner of war. They have no idea when or if it will ever end.

[MgtPA]

9. In the 70's, all Navy sailors were required to attend SERE school prior to deployment overseas.

[glowing]

6. I doubt it. I beleive that program is to train people how to deal with torture

should it occur to them. I believe also, very few go thru the course and its volluntary. But who knows.

[Ilsa]

8. I asked a friend about his SERE training. He said, "I told them everything

I knew and what they wanted to know. Right away. No problem." I guess they marked him down as someone who would "break" quickly. Never mattered, though.

Another friend said some of his teeth were slightly loose afterwards. But he had been through marine bootcamp, so I guess he thought he was supposed to withstand the torture.

Edited for typo.