Whirled News - California Congressman Compares Torture to Fraternity Hazing

In congressional hearings today on the role of the Justice Department in torture, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) insisted that what other people call torture is really like fraternity hazing.

“I do see here things that seem to be fraternity boy pranks and hazing pranks that I do not -- they might be unacceptable, but they certainly don't fit into the category of torture, which is the word that's been bandied around here,” he said.

Talking Points Memo reporter Kate Klonick reports that in his 13-minutes’ speaking time, Rohrabacher used a variation of the phrase “panties on the head” eight times.

In a press release later that day, the congressman’s office explained that Rohrabacher had not literally meant to compare waterboarding, enforced kneeling and standing in unnaturally painful positions, death threats, sensory deprivation, and exposure to extreme temperatures to fraternity boys wearing panties on their heads.

“The Representative was temporarily in the throes of an unconscious sadomasochistic eruption caused by all those torture stories and photographs,” the statement read, “And this caused him to misstate his real position. Rep. Rohrabacher in fact believes that what happened to prisoners was closer to fraternity boys having urine-soaked panties stuffed forcibly down their throat until they gagged uncontrollably.”