Torture - Waterboarding

Our American allies, led by that great politician George Bush, are evidently continuing on a path of torture to obtain information regarding the Iraq-Afghanistan situation.

President Bush has often referred to ‘water-boarding’, the form of torture favoured for use by the CIA on terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay as an ’enhanced interrogation technique’. He is obviously unaware of the fact that such description is not new and was originally coined by the Nazis.

In 1947, a Japanese soldier who had used water-boarding against a US citizen during World War II was sentenced to 15 years in a US prison for committing a war-crime. In 1948 such techniques were clearly understood to be war-crimes, the punishment for which was death!

One of the (many) torure techniques used by the Gestapo during WWII was a form of water-boarding. The victim was tied face up on a board and then lowered backwards into a bath full of cold water until there was loss of conciousness, after which the victim was pulled out, revived and the torture process continued.

Forms of Gestapo torture can be found in the book The White Rabbit by Yeo-Thomas.

Question: will President Bush be accused of war crimes and made to appear before the Court in The Hague?

Bush, Blair & Bodge

According to a television documentary, the Americans seemed to believe the people of Iraq would welcome them with open arms, with fire-arms yes, although the expected open arms welcome left a little to be desired.

When the war was in full swing, I recall there being a comments from the Americans to the effect that they were unable to recognise insurgents as they did not conform to wearing a uniform. If any of the Bush aides had bothered reading up on the resistance in France during WWII they would’ve known that resistance workers tend to work under-cover for their own safety.

British forces in both Iraq and now Afghanistan are rightly portrayed as the poor relation of the Yanks. I recall the Brits having to beg bottled water from their wealthy buddies. Whilst the Australian forces in Iraq patrol by tank, our guys have to do whatever they can in military Land Rovers, such, according to our battle weary guys being damned dangerous, incapable of offering protection from virtually any in-coming missile or mine, and originally designed for patrolling the streets of Belfast and being totally unsitable for the dessert.

We all remember a sergeant being ordered to give his body armour to a member of his troop and then being killed by a bullet that the same body armour would’ve stopped!

The lesson our ministers need to learn is, don’t send our troops into battle without the correct equipment, adequate provisions, first-class heavy generators to provide ongoing air-conditioning, and in the case of battle zones such as Iraq, vehicles designed for dessert warfare (again including air conditioning).

Jon Gaunt - Radio Presenter

I am an avid listener to talkSPORT radio, initially tuning in to the Alan Brazil Show at 6am, it’s a show I find both interesting and amusing.

The Jon Gaunt Show follows Mr Brazil  at 10am and in all truth I rarely bother changing channels, hence I end up listening to Jon Gaunt.

I find Jon Gaunt to be an extremely self opinionated, arrogant, rude and at times a very bullying and abusive presenter. He poses a subject, offers listeners his views and then invites comment. That’s fine if the listener phones in and is permitted to air his view. The problem is, Mr Gaunt rarely if ever allows an opposing view to be aired without constantly butting in, talking over the caller or terminating the call (Mr Gaunt controls the switches!).

Jon Gaunt openly advises listeners as to his brilliance as a radio presenter, of his desire to be included on the panel of any political debate TV show, of his three Sony Awards (which date back a few years and I imagine he keeps glass side of the net curtains in his front room). He throws out hints about freebies, believes he should always by upgraded on flights, and is proud to be invited into the directors box at Coventry City FC (which probably means watching the match whilst standing on a soapbox next to the Chairman). Mr Gaunt believes himself to be the ‘Master of Talk Radio’. He also has a rather nauseating habit of stating to anyone who criticises his on-air ill mannered attitude ”When I need advice on radio presenting from you I’ll…..”.

In my opinion, Brian Hayes radio show on LBC was far far better. Mr Hayes would pose the subject, invite comment from listeners, argue against their comment, then when the opposite comment was made he would change track and argue that too. The important thing was, Mr Hayes granted listeners time to air their comments without butting in or cutting them off, which is an art Jon Gaunt could learn from and adopt - but of course he won’t as he believes he doesn’t need advice on broadcasting from anyone!