Now I get it. Tharp was the victim of an enhanced training technique.

The CIA has given us to understand that forced simulation of drowning - along with a number of other practices - isn't torture. Its "waterboarding." Or better yet, its an "enhanced interrogation technique." I'm glad to know that.

Perhaps this also sheds some light on what happened to Jason Tharp, the teenager who wanted out of the military, then drowned during "training." Forced to tread water, Jason was surrounded by Marine swim instructors as he went under possibly six times, screamed repeatedly to be let out of the pool, finally succumbed to exhaustion and coughed, gagged, or vomitted before bobbing to the surface unresponsive.

Initially, I thought what happened to Jason was a study in sadism. Gang-style savagery, to be exact. Especially that part about the instructor shoving Jason's head deeper into the water. I'll bet some folks even thought it was cold-blooded murder. But after all this talk about enhanced interrogation techniques, I guess Jason was simply the victim of an enhanced training technique. Maybe this explains why the Associated Press and other mainstream media merely summarized Jason's death as "preventable," without bothering to mention all those horrifying details revealed in the investigative report.

America seems rather taken with the semantics - or antics - of euphemistical skullduggery. And I've given a lot of thought lately to George Orwell's 1984, especially the convoluted terminology known as "Newspeak." Frankly, that's been a bit unnerving. 'Cause the next thing you know, I'll be gettin' the sweet land of liberty confused with some kind of Orwellian nightmare...

Only one media outlet revealed the horrifying details contained in the investigative report:
http://wistv.com/global/story.asp?s=3529920&ClientType=Printable