Friday, August 29, 2014

The [un-]Islamic State used Waterboarding

The Washington Post reports that ISIS or ISIL (now calling itself IS) apparently waterbaorded four captives, including the late journalist James Foley.  Reporters Adam Goldman and Julie Tate write, "President Obama has condemned waterboarding as torture."

More importantly, US courts treated the technique as torture, as did the post-World War II war crimes court, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in which the US participated.

Judge Evan Wallach's research demonstrated this.  Wallach is a veteran of the Nevada National Guard, having served in the JAG Corps (military lawyers).

Wallach's scholarly essay appeared in The Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.  A shorter version appeared as an Op-Ed for The Washington Post.