By: E&P Staff U.S. Army General Russel Honore on Friday said that the public should not be quick to condemn the use of waterboarding -- the simulated drowning torture technique -- in interrogations.
"I don't know much about it, but I know we're dealing with terrorists who do some very awful things to people," he said to a reporter after a talk at Flat Rock Middle School in Tyrone, Ga.
"I know enough about [waterboarding] that the intent is not to kill anybody. We know that terrorists that we deal with, they have no law that they abide by. They have no code, they kill indiscriminately, like they did on 9/11...
"We could sit there and treat him nice, and that may not work," he said.
Honore commands the Fort Gillem-based First Army. He plans to leave the army soon and "hinted at a possible future run for political office," the paper said.
"Torture is considered a war crime by the international community," the newspaper pointed out. "CIA interrogators are believed to have used waterboarding against detained terror suspects....
"Honore became a national folk hero of sorts in 2005 after taking command of the government's embarrassingly slow response to the devastated residents of the Gulf Coast in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin once described him as 'a John Wayne dude who gets things done.'"
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