4th graders are smarter than neocons like Condi, who appear to be incapable of answering a simple question.

exactly more then likely the questions came from the parents & the teacher!

She is in forth grade. All she knows about torture is what she watches on 24. These people blow themselves up to kill Americans. The way I look at is, if they get a little water up their nose, they are getting off easy. But lets make sure they are comfortable. We wouldn't want to injure them or hurt their feelings.

Torture is wrong. Period. No matter what country does it. We prosecuted and executed Japanese officials after WWII for these same war crimes. We, as the United States, need to set a precedent so that something like this doesn't ever happen again in the name of the 'United States of America'. We need to worry about being the best country FOR the world, NOT the best country IN the world.

torture? water boarding is a means to confuse the brain. Torture is when they cut off the heads of Americans. The beat and sexually abuse them for fun. The water used is actually a dripping of water on the forehead in this method. By placing a small piece of plastic on certain areas of the face the dripping water makes their brain think they are drowning. Ohhh no we are tricking their brain. We are causing NO physical pain at all. Let me see if I understand Obama's position. Don't hurt them, don't trick them, don't embarrass them. Ask them nicely if they will help and when they say no be sure to make their dinner according their spiritual beliefs, provide them a nice place to pray, point them to mecca and leave them be. They have the right to pray but I as an American citizen do not! Good luck with that..good bye to America. Our dollar and our words are worth nothing world wide now. This is the CHANGE he promised?

To Jillbinsc:
Waterboarding is tricking the brain? I suppose playing Russian Roulette with an unwilling participant is also tricking them. Let's call it what it is: torture. You are inducing a sensation of drowning, which is no trick. I will never condone what those terrorists did, but I also cannot ignore when my beloved country breaks the law. The only trick here is making people like you believe there was nothing unethical or illegal done.

how nice that some left wing nut pimps out their kid in an attempt to embarrass ms rice.

You would only believe that this question did not come from a fourth grader if you have never taught a group of bright fourth graders or raised a precocious child.

Okay, first off - to Brett about the "water up their nose." The US doesnt even allow Red Cross members to check on the detainees we hold at Guantanamo. We deny them access to a lawyer and to their families. I don't understand why people are defending America for being such wrong. If the shoe was on the other foot, I'm sure you'd be crying for the Red Cross members to be able to see our troops. America is by far the biggest terrorist of all. You can't even count on both hands how many times we have overthrown democratically elected governments simply for the reason of installing regimes that benefit our capitalistic "rights." Why do Americans insist on turning the other cheek? If you would all take a moment to read the real history, not from the history books, you might start to realize that from the start we have done everything by force. Columbus came here and wiped out the indigenous populations of Hispanola. We stole our country from the Indians, then part of Mexico, then after messing over everyone who had a right to be here (see: numerous treaties that amounted to s... when it no longer helped our inhumane motives). Terrorists dont hate us because we have freedoms and rights, like your "leaders" have lead you to believe. They hate us because we dont extend those rights to third world countries, and instead just exploit them for our interests. Like the Spanish-American war for example. We "helped" Cuba liberate itself from the Spanish invaders - only to become the invaders ourselves. Then we went on and took Guam, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii from them. Followed by a brutal subjugation of the Philipines. All in the name of altruism. A country that thrives off violence can't be expected to change it's course....at least we shouldn't expect the leaders to change the course. It's just sad that you citizens all over this country thing we are doing good things with legitimate kindness. Show me one example where we have been a benevolent country. I'm positive I can retort with evidence of quite the contrary. Brett - you deserve some "water in your nose" for supporting terrorism. There have been numerous UN and World Court findings that determined the US used "unlawful use of force." In layman's terms, terrorism. And this is a country you defend with pride. Pride isn't about nationality. We're the number one terrorists.

Looks as if lefty parents and teachers are using their kids again for political "statements".

I am surprised that anyone would doubt that this 4th grader formulated the question herself. Believe it or not, there are a lot of intelligent children who are interested in current events and who, by the looks of the various comments on this site, know a lot more than many adults.

The sad part of these commentaries is that a 4th grader is smarter than the right wing-nuts who post here

My fifth grader watchs the national news and listens and understands most of it. I can say he has kept up on things for a few years, so I don't doubt the question at all. For the half wit that claims waterborading is not torture, just tricking the mind? Grow a brain its been called torture for 300 years and we hung Japanese officers for doing. And half wit you claim cutting off someones head is torture? No, its called murder, and how wouold a headless person ive you intel???
It was a great question and Condi did a piss poor job answering her.

On November 29, 2007, Sen. McCain, while campaigning in St. Petersburg, Florida, said, "Following World War II war crime trials were convened. The Japanese were tried and convicted and hung for war crimes committed against American POWs. Among those charges for which they were convicted was waterboarding."

Sen. McCain was righ. Politifact, the St. Petersburg Times' truth-testing project (which this week was awarded a Pulitzer Prize), scrutinized Sen. McCain's statement and found it to be true. Here's the money quote from Politifact:

"McCain is referencing the Tokyo Trials, officially known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. After World War II, an international coalition convened to prosecute Japanese soldiers charged with torture. At the top of the list of techniques was water-based interrogation, known variously then as 'water cure,' 'water torture' and 'waterboarding,' according to the charging documents. It simulates drowning." Politifact went on to report, "A number of the Japanese soldiers convicted by American judges were hanged, while others received lengthy prison sentences or time in labor camps."

The folks at Politifact interviewed R. John Pritchard, the author of The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Complete Transcripts of the Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. They also interviewed Yuma Totani, history professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and consulted the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, which published a law review article entitled, "Drop by Drop: Forgetting the History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts."

The names of the Japanese men executed for waterboarding are:
General Kenji Doihara
Baron Kōki Hirota
General Seishirō Itagaki
General Heitarō Kimura
General Iwane Matsui
General Akira Muto
General Hideki Tōjō

We'll be waiting a long time, I expect, for all those right-wingers out there who claim waterboarding isn't torture to apologize to the world.



"The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the [UN Convention on Torture]. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.

The core provisions of the Convention establish a regime for international cooperation in the criminal prosecution of torturers relying on so-called 'universal jurisdiction.' Each State Party is required either to prosecute torturers who are found in its territory or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution."
signed: Ronald Reagan,
1984 UN Convention on Torture

"I call on all governments to join with the United States... in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture."
-George W. Bush, 6/26/03.

Sex Machine I don't why you are saying Columbus was one of us, OUR country was founded by Englishmen, Columbus was an Italian sailing for the Spanish. So here is how you should have started off, Columbus (Italian sailing for the Spanish) came here and wiped out the indigenous populations of Hispanola. Most of the Native Americans were killed by the Spanish, French, Portuguese, and even Dutch. The US got almost all of its land through treaties with Spain and France, I believe some area in the Northeast was taken from the Dutch. So those nations ''stole'' most of the land and killed most of the native Americans. It was also quite funny when you said we stole our land from the Indians, and then part of Mexico, its funny, because well Mexico was stolen land right, I mean the Spanish stole it from the Native Americans, right after your Mexico comment you say: ''screwing over everyone who had a right to be here'' so you're implying that the people ruling Mexico (Spanish) had a right to be there, but you don't care obviously you just want to defame the US, so your complete double standard is understandable. By the way who is ''everyone'' who deserved to be there, I mean by saying everyone, you're implying that it wasn't just the Native Americans. The British were just as deserving to be in the land the Spanish named Mexico as the Spanish. The US actually gained most of its land through treaties with the French and Spanish.

Your comment about terrorists is right in the fact that they don't hate us because we have rights and freedoms, though I've never heard anyone say, ''Terrorists hate us, because we have freedoms.'' As for ''They hate us because we don't extend those rights to third world countries'' you're saying they hate us, because we don't extend those rights, that's bullshit, because they don't want those rights. They don't, the terrorists we fight aren't fucking Advocates for Democracy, they're fucking religious fundamentalists, the Taliban ruled parts of Afghanistan for a while, and they sure as hell weren't ruling it as a Democracy, no they were ruling as an Islamic Theocracy. So no Terrorists aren't angry, because we don't try to extend our rights to them, they don't want us to push our Western values onto them. I'm sure that you could find some ulterior motive for every positive US action, but if you try hard enough, you can do that for any nation.

What does it matter who the question came from? Does it change the fact that the US tortured its prisoners? NO!

Probably not from an adult. When I was 9 (many, many years ago) I understood and questioned such things. My 9-year-old granddaughter writes and talks constantly about animal abuse, including a letter addressed to the president asking him to address the issue of animal abuse and offering her help. I came across this one day after she had spent the weekend at my house. When my grandson was 9, he discussed at length missing children, especially Elizabeth Smart, who was in the news at that time. He had theories about what might have happened -- he wasn't too far off. Nine-year-olds are not so ignorant and self-absorbed as adults think. Actually, that age seems to be the time in which the start to become more aware of and concerned about the world around them.

I don't know what world you liberals are living in, but we are at war, and when a known terrorist that has tried to kill Americans, and in some cases succeeded in doing so, is caught and detained, I personally think we should torture them just for what they did before we torture them to get answers. This whole debate is ridiculous - alls fair in love and war, but especially in war b/c it could save your life!

This is a classic example of the Emperor's new clothes.
A child's common sense exposes the fallacy of the
ruler's preconceptions and the mob's gullibilty.

Rice was just "following orders" as was said before.