I have not a single idea why Marc Thiessen, a speechwriter whose writing indicates thorough ignorance about national security, believes it’s exculpatory to insist that waterboarding of the Mitchell/Jessen/CIA variety is different-enough from the Spanish Inquisition, but Matthew Yglesias thoroughly humiliates him here. Julian Sanchez put it, perhaps, best in a tweet:

Does Marc Thiessen realize how depraved his “defenses” sound? “But, but… there were these PINCERS when the Inquisition did it!”

As it happens, I have a friend who’s both been waterboarded and subjected others to waterboarding. His name is Malcolm Nance. Malcolm used to be an instructor for Naval special forces, and in 2007 he described the experience of how terrifying and thoroughly torturous being waterboarded is. We were at an Adams-Morgan coffee shop and it was chilling. Shortly afterward, he shared the experience with a congressional panel; here he is making his points before a similar one. Listen to him and it’s plain: waterboarding is not something civilized people do to prisoners in their custody. Is it exactly like the Spanish Inquisition? If you start asking the question like that and believe the answer to be significant, the jig is up. It’s too fucking close for a civilized people, let alone citizens of the world’s greatest nation, to ever perform.

Another thing. Thiessen says that Yglesias, by being descriptive, is slandering the CIA. Malcolm has worked alongside U.S. intelligence agents, in some of the most dangerous circumstances, for about as long as I’ve been alive. In my six or so years reporting on national security, I’ve spoken with a number of CIA agents and officials who consider waterboarding to be disgusting. They’re not angry with anyone for pointing out how repugnant it is. They’re angry with those people, like Thiessen’s colleagues in the Bush administration, who ordered the agency to debase itself by performing it.