Last Friday, 2008 Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr spoke at the CPAC conference in Washington, DC. According to several sources, the conservative crowd booed when he said that waterboarding is torture, and that civilian trials may be preferable to military tribunals. According to the Huffington Post:
"There is nothing magical about a military tribunal," Barr said, as boos from the audience began cascading around him. "They don’t have, necessarily, better lawyers than in a civilian sector. I think I have a lot more faith in our U.S. attorneys who are non political, than my colleagues on the other side of this debate do. We can try them. We should try them. That is precisely… what our law provides for. And if next time we are faced with a situation we say: ‘Oh, you know, we want to have them go to the military. Let them torture them for a while. It’s not enhanced interrogation techniques. Waterboarding is torture. How would you like to be waterboarded? Try that!"
