U.S. agents waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in one month. Why so many? Did he not tell them anything the first 182 times and they thought, "Ah…the 183rd time! That's when they all crack!"? Or did he keep giving them useful info each time and they couldn't resist going back over and over to see if he had any more in him? I've never been waterboarded but I have the feeling that if I had anything I could say that would get them to stop doing it to me, you'd get it out of me by, oh, maybe the second time. Maybe halfway through the first.
If they kept doing it, I'd tell them everything and if that wasn't enough, I'd just start making up stuff. You wouldn't believe the crap I'd come up with by my fourth or fifth waterboarding. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to masterminding the 9/11 attacks, plus roles in the Richard Reid shoe bombing attempt, the Bali nightclub bombing in Indonesia, the murder of Daniel Pearl, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and various other attacks. Waterboard me six times and I'd plead guilty to all that, plus shooting J.F.K. from the grassy knoll while banging Marilyn Monroe and hiding O.J.'s knife.