Rudy doesn't know

Rudy hedges on waterboarding. Asked if the technique is torture he said, "It depends on how it’s done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it."

Wrong, Rudy! It is torture. It simulates drowning and the person thinks s/he is going to die. It induces psychological trauma. They start blabbing and saying anything at all the torturer wants to hear just to stop it. Before the war criminals in the White House endorced it this is a technique that was most associated with the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.

Beyond being 110% morally wrong and unjustifiable, torture does not even get reliable intelligence or confessions. Here in Chicago we are in the process of coming to terms with a police torture scandal from decades ago and, slowly, innocent men are being released from prison. The intelligence our military and CIA are gathering when they use torture is no better. And it can lead us dangerously astray. Sullivan gives a good summary of how it could happen here and here.

Rudy is wrong for America on so many levels (he's dictatorial, he's secretive, he doesn't believe in checks and balances) but the endorsing of torture makes everything else, and they are big things, moot!