Torture: not just for enemy detainees

Best I could find to fit a story like this

There are several ways to deal with young children who are less-than-satisfying in school. But dealing with your little cherub’s educative underperformance through physical torture and abuse is not one of them.

So, tell that to this man, who chose to punish his four-year-old daughter for her inability to recite the alphabet by waterboarding her.

Joshua Tabor admitted to police he had used the CIA torture technique because he was so angry.

As his daughter 'squirmed' to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline.

Tabor, 27, who had won custody of his daughter only four weeks earlier, admitted choosing the punishment because the girl was terrified of water.

[…]

Tabor, a soldier at the Lewis-McChord base in Tacoma, Washington, was arrested after being seen walking around his neighbourhood wearing a Kevlar military helmet and threatening to break windows.

Police discovered the alleged waterboarding when they went to his home in the Tacoma suburb of Yelm and spoke to his girlfriend.

She told them about the alleged torture and the terrified girl was found hiding in a closet, with bruising on her back and scratch marks on her neck and throat.

Asked how she got the bruises, the girl is said to have replied: 'Daddy did it.'

Of course, there is reason to believe that the man’s military service may have a role to play, here. For all we know, he could have some form of PTSD or something, which would be an expected cause for him to react in such a violent and irrational manner to something so trivial. But, even if this is the case, it certainly doesn’t justify or excuse what he did. The fact remains: he just tortured a little girl. His own daughter, to boot.

Sometimes, I wonder if fathers who return from military service shouldn’t undergo an especially thorough psychological examination to ensure they’re still apt to take care of young children.

And before anyone complains about this story coming from the Daily Mail, here’s the same story over at The News Tribune, and at Fox News. … Oh.

(via Pharyngula)