Video of my ex-stepdad

Richardson used this ad when he was running for president. He and my stepfather became quite close during the hostage situation. David ended up winning millions in damages against the Iraqi government for keeping him in Abu Ghraib. He ended up dying from cancer before he could enjoy it. David was a vietnam veteran and had been shot three times. He still had flashbacks while he slept and would wake up screaming and reaching for his gun. I'll never forget it. Even with all the hell he went through after being held captive by Saddam Hussein, David was still anti-torture and believed in the American dream. We miss you David! See you in heaven!




Click here for Richardson video

Their story

Very interesting. Personal question - was David the man your mom was married to when she lived along the river in Madison, down by the Key West Shrimp House?

My dad is also a Viet Nam vet. His words mirror David's (and John McCain's) as regards waterboarding and other torture. It's too bad more can't listen to our veterans opinions, including POW's like McCain (who isn't lying, as some people believe) and former hostages, like David.

Let me add that Richardson was my democratic nominee pick for president, too!

Thanks for sharing that video, gringaloca. I can't begin to imagine what he went through there. Torture under a piece of garbage like Hussein must have been an absolute hell. This is exactly why I say what we did in waterboarding is in no way a comparison to things that happened to him in Abu Ghraib.
My dad is a Korean War vet, he was a Marine. He saw, and had to do, a lot of horrible things. He knows some vets that were POW's and many that weren't. Their view is that waterboarding isn't anywhere close to torture, but a useful tactic. I agree with them.

Judge Roy Bean wrote:

Thanks for sharing that video, gringaloca. I can't begin to imagine what he went through there. Torture under a piece of garbage like Hussein must have been an absolute hell. This is exactly why I say what we did in waterboarding is in no way a comparison to things that happened to him in Abu Ghraib.
My dad is a Korean War vet, he was a Marine. He saw, and had to do, a lot of horrible things. He knows some vets that were POW's and many that weren't. Their view is that waterboarding isn't anywhere close to torture, but a useful tactic. I agree with them.

I guess torture, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, then.

Annie Oakley wrote:

Very interesting. Personal question - was David the man your mom was married to when she lived along the river in Madison, down by the Key West Shrimp House?

My dad is also a Viet Nam vet. His words mirror David's (and John McCain's) as regards waterboarding and other torture. It's too bad more can't listen to our veterans opinions, including POW's like McCain (who isn't lying, as some people believe) and former hostages, like David.

Let me add that Richardson was my democratic nominee pick for president, too!

No. Do you remember when I lived in Florida as a child? This was the man I was living with. My mother was married to him for several years. We lived on Jax Navy base where David worked on jets. I ended up moving back home with my grandparents when I was diagnosed with chronic ulcerative colitis. David was a cool guy but very troubled from all that was done to him. The last time I spoke he talked about his tiny cell at Abu Ghraib and some things that happened there but in grand David style he laughed that the food was good and he got a steak dinner every night. He suffered four heart attacks after being subjected to that place. It's a wonder that he survived those and ended up dying from cancer. His father and grandfather were both Navy veterans and had served in war time. His grandfather and mother being Italian immigrants. Bill Richardson would have got my vote as well simply because he was completely responsible for the release of David and his buddies. And he did it by going to Saddam and talking to him. Not by torturing people for information or threatening to attack their country. People have forgotten that diplomacy still works even with insane dictators like Hussein. That's why it makes me laugh when people get their feathers ruffled about President Obama shaking Chavez's hand and bowing to the Saudis. You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. And your eye of the beholder comment below is true but it gave me cold chills reading it.

gringaloca wrote:

People have forgotten that diplomacy still works even with insane dictators like Hussein. That's why it makes me laugh when people get their feathers ruffled about President Obama shaking Chavez's hand and bowing to the Saudis. You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. And your eye of the beholder comment below is true but it gave me cold chills reading it.

It also get's people killed, in fact more often than not when dealing with maniacs.
Why would reading "I guess torture, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, then"? I'm not getting your meaning there. I agree with Annie, people are different, we all have different opinions. At least in this country, we're allowed to.

Judge Roy Bean wrote:

gringaloca wrote:

People have forgotten that diplomacy still works even with insane dictators like Hussein. That's why it makes me laugh when people get their feathers ruffled about President Obama shaking Chavez's hand and bowing to the Saudis. You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. And your eye of the beholder comment below is true but it gave me cold chills reading it.

It also get's people killed, in fact more often than not when dealing with maniacs.
Why would reading "I guess torture, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, then"? I'm not getting your meaning there. I agree with Annie, people are different, we all have different opinions. At least in this country, we're allowed to.

I think your sentence wasn't complete but I get your meaning?. It gives me chills number one to have beauty and torture in the same sentence. Second, I will never understand how making someone feel like they are drowning isn't torture. I almost drown when I was a kid and I still remember what that felt like. No, it didn't break any bones but it's not something I would want to experience 200 times. No person should have to experience that. Even the evil ones. I say let God sort em out when their times comes. Anyway, I'm not alone and the law states that waterboarding is torture so I'm happy to have the law on my side. And did you see where the company that reversed engineered the torture techniques warned the white house that what they were getting ready to do to those people was torture and the white house ignored it? When specialist in interrogation are telling you that what you are doing is falling under the definition of torture, you've got a problem.

gringaloca wrote:

Second, I will never understand how making someone feel like they are drowning isn't torture.

What would you call making someone think they are going to be flown to some foreign airport and held hostage, and then flying them, instead, into the side of a building? What would you call making someone believe they are going to burn to death in a building, and then filling that building with so much choking smoke that the person has to choose the means of their own death?

Curly Bill wrote:

gringaloca wrote:

Second, I will never understand how making someone feel like they are drowning isn't torture.

What would you call making someone think they are going to be flown to some foreign airport and held hostage, and then flying them, instead, into the side of a building? What would you call making someone believe they are going to burn to death in a building, and then filling that building with so much choking smoke that the person has to choose the means of their own death?

Not every person the US has tortured and held captive were connected to 9-11. Just because you were born in the middle east doesn't mean we have the right to detain and torture you. That's like the Japanese coming and getting you and torturing you for the bombing of Hiroshima. You didn't drop the bomb, did you? So you don't deserve to be tortured and held against your will for it. And I think comparing what happened to the poor people on those planes and waterboarding is weird. It sounds like you are getting a bigger kick out of hurting these people to get revenge than gaining information. We shouldn't torture for information or for our jollies. Besides, all the head interrogators for the US who were conducting these acts said that waterboarding wasn't that successful and that it has proven to be unsuccessful in the past because the people will say whatever you want, even if it's a total lie, just so you will stop torturing them. A good example is when our soldiers were tortured by China during the Korean war. Our soldiers were saying all sorts of crazy stuff just to make the torture stop. That's back when we called watherboarding torture because it was being done to us. I suppose if you main objective is to inflict pain and anguish on someone to get back at the 9-11 hijackers (in some weird disconnected way) then it serves it's purpose but nothing positive for our country comes of it. Nobody is denying that September 11th was horrible and the people responsible should be brought to justice but we have to do it the right way because we are better than they are. Maybe instead of starting some war based on lies in Iraq, we should have focused all our man power on capturing Osama Bin Laden? But Bush said he wasn't worried about that guy anymore.

Thanks, Gringa loca for posting this all. I agree with you in your above arguments. So many times, I think people would understand theings better if they had a personal experience to connect to it. Thanks for sharing your.

Venus03 wrote:

Thanks, Gringa loca for posting this all. I agree with you in your above arguments. So many times, I think people would understand theings better if they had a personal experience to connect to it. Thanks for sharing your.

This is a very personal issue for me and I take it very seriously. If a man like David can survive through the things he did and still believe that torture is not the answer for this country I choose to believe him. He was tortured himself so he actually knew what he was talking about. He wasn't some talking head pundit blowing off at the mouth.

Thanks for the support Venus!