US Soldier Waterboards 4-Year-Old Daughter For Not Reciting ABC's

A GI waterboarded his 4-year-old daughter in their suburban Tacoma, Wash., home because she couldn't recite the alphabet, police reported.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ news/national/2010/02/08/20 10-02-08_us_soldier_joshua_ taber_waterboarded_his_daug hter_4_because_she_couldnt_ recite_a.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/ news/national/2010/02/08/20 10-02-08_us_soldier_joshua_ taber_waterboarded_his_daug hter_4_because_she_couldnt_ recite_a.html

A GI waterboarded his 4-year-old daughter in their suburban Tacoma, Wash., home because she couldn't recite the alphabet, police reported.

Joshua Tabor, 27, allegedly admitted to police he used the torture technique because his daughter was terrified of water and he was furious she didn't know her ABCs.

Tabor was arrested Sunday and charged with assault of a child.

Tabor, a soldier at the Lewis-McChord base in Tacoma, Wash., told police he held the little girl's head backward in a sink of water, Yelm Police Chief Todd Stancil told the the local newspaper, the Nisqually Valley News.

Stancil said Tabor had admitted to using this means of punishment three to four times.

Police found the little girl locked in a bathroom with bruises 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."

Police did not release Tabor's rank or the nature of his military service. His base is home to units that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The girl, who was not identified, had been in Tabor's court-ordered custody for about a month and a half.

After his arrest, she was placed in the care of Child Protective services, Stancil said. She had moved to Yelm from Montana where she lived with her grandparents. Her mother lives in Kansas.

Cops arrested Tabor after neighborhood residents reported him walking around his neighborhood drunk, wearing a Kevlar Army helmet and threatening to break windows.

Tabor's girlfriend told police that Tabor has an anger problem and beats his daughter, Stancil said.

Tabor reportedly said his girlfriend helped hold the girl down in the water. She had not been charged.

The couple has a 2-month-old child together, Stancil said.


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This saddens and disgusts me to no end.
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At whatever prison he goes to - they kill child torturers and molestors first... :)

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 12:45:29 PM EST

I hope he gets butt-raped several times, first.

by mochalex on 02/08/2010 12:48:32 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Waterboarding isn't torture Bobo, according to the Con rule book chapter 14 section 24 of the Teabag Lovers of Conservative America and discount house of Worship. You got some splaining to do at the next meeting.

In fact to demonstrate that it isn't torture a certain ConTex-tant is one day soon going to post a video "First things first. I am planning my first TYT video, which will show me being waterboarded with a fire hose, using a big pump, drawing water from my lake. (I'm not kidding. I just need some help with the video.) You guys are gonna love this."

That was eight months ago, fortunatly we didn't hold our breaths in anticipation.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative." John Stuart Mill

by Hubble on 02/08/2010 07:45:08 PM EST

[ Parent ]
it isnt that hard to upload a video to Youtube

Im starting to think  that it was all a  lie

Republicans portray the government as the enemy. Then when they take over, they prove it.

by Chinese Democracy on 02/08/2010 07:57:29 PM EST

[ Parent ]
He totally intended to do it, but forgot that he doesn't have a lake.

by ashbul on 02/09/2010 03:59:15 AM EST

[ Parent ]

Republicans portray the government as the enemy. Then when they take over, they prove it.

by Chinese Democracy on 02/09/2010 03:20:49 PM EST

[ Parent ]

confused. Perhaps he thought that water-boarding wasn't torture, or even assault.

Perhaps he read something bobo or kentx said a hundred million times here and everywhere...that water-boarding is an effective way to get the result you want.

Perhaps he simply believed bobo.

by opiman000 on 02/08/2010 01:04:07 PM EST

condone violence against children, I would say that if it were an adult being waterboarded, I'd bet they'd know their ABC's the next time they were asked...

I'm just sayin'...

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 02:48:29 PM EST

[ Parent ]
If they didn't know English.

by Alloy on 02/08/2010 04:43:05 PM EST

[ Parent ]
We're just negotiating the details now.  So far, you've set the limit at children -- but there's no reason to believe that you wouldn't change your mind if, for instance, a thirteen-year-old wouldn't admit who his accomplices were in preparing to gun down his fellow students at school.

But since you already allow torture for adults, it won't be long until a reason to torture you can be found.  And when you are tortured, you can chalk it up to your inability to follow a simple train of thought.


The world is a strange place, but that makes it really fun to watch. -- bfaul

by EveningStarNM on 02/08/2010 05:12:41 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Or preventing harm to others, I would have to consider it.

When it comes to preventing the death or harm to others, the good of the many outweighs the needs or rights of the individual...

I'm sorry you cannot accept that fact, Star. I'm glad you're not in charge of securing our nation...

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 06:44:37 PM EST

[ Parent ]
You are a daily threat to others.  You advocate policies which would abrogate not merely people's human rights but their Constitutional rights, even to the point of costing them their lives.  You advocate robbing every citizen and non-citizen of the one thing they have that is the sole source not only of their individual security but of the security of the nation as a whole:

Their fundamental individual rights.

You, Bob, are a danger to others and, therefore, according to your own criteria must be tortured in order to prevent the deaths of or harm to others.

It would appear, Bob, that you have adopted yet another very stupid and short-sighted position, but we're getting used to seeing you do that.


The world is a strange place, but that makes it really fun to watch. -- bfaul

by EveningStarNM on 02/08/2010 08:11:59 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I would never ask anyone to be torutred without severe justification.

Torturing is wrong. But we do it all the time, so why are you still bitching about it?

I wouldn't want to see anyone tortured, but there are some cases in which interrogations that whiners like you call torture are necessary to extract needed information.

Is it right? No, but doing the "right" thing isn't always the right thing to do...

Try to think beyond your own short attention span and grasp the bigger picture, Star...

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 08:27:14 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Fucking info from torture, get over it. You got bullshit lies from the torture so it would stop, I would tell you there was WMDs in Iraq if it would stop my water boarding.

Your right the bitch USA does it all the time in black Military sites away from the law. And it has been heavily relied upon by the Bush admin. You can’t claim to be a moral and just country after you do this, nor the land of the brave after you shoot drone missiles into heavy civilian populated areas. Nor the free when you spy on your own country with no warrants.

by Alloy on 02/08/2010 08:34:51 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I said it was done - big difference...

:)

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 09:12:15 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I have to admit it, Bob, but you are an endless source of entertainment.  You continually provide us with definitive examples of such unbelievable stupidity that we can only laugh:

"..doing the 'right' thing isn't always the right thing to do"

Are you sure that you don't have a writer coming up with these bits for you?  This is the only area in which you show any wit at all, so it's hard to believe that you're writing these gems yourself.


The world is a strange place, but that makes it really fun to watch. -- bfaul

by EveningStarNM on 02/08/2010 09:07:41 PM EST

[ Parent ]
"outweighs the needs or rights of the individual..."

Wow Bobo, when did you become a Stalinist?

"People who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them." LL

by Robrob on 02/08/2010 11:48:45 PM EST

[ Parent ]

it was good enough for bush.

it was good enough for cheney.

and its good enough for me.

by neo on 02/08/2010 01:21:53 PM EST

...a mental case before or after he served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I'm guessing some of what he saw and did over there precipitated this outburst.  No sane or rational parent would think to abuse his child this way.  I can only hope he gets the help he needs to become a good father.

by rickthaluddite on 02/08/2010 01:33:50 PM EST

This is very sad.  Post-traumatic stress and the general break from reality that returns with some military personal after many tours of duty does horrible things.  It is easy to think of the guy as just a mean abusive father, and maybe that is the case here.  But he was probably someone else before his multiple tours of duty began.  Shooting at people that look like civilians but might not be can fade the mental capacity to delineate between friend and foe.

by MGriebe on 02/08/2010 01:34:39 PM EST

And I'm sure this act will haunt him for the rest of his life.

But if this guy is suffering from PTSD...

I just feel terrible for everyone concerned.

by toosinbeymen on 02/08/2010 03:46:51 PM EST

I find this article a bit far fetched. That is my hope. Sadly,I am not surprised. I have seen an increasing number of news reports that indicate the disturbing reality of escalating levels of violence against children both here and abroad.

The result of stressful economic conditions?

If anyone deserves a military tribunal and summary execution it is this man. What could be more terrifying to a small child than to tortured by a father.

Before me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure.

All hope abandon ye who enter here.

by OccamsRazor on 02/08/2010 04:17:13 PM EST

waterboard a lil girl

[ED] added to this thread from it's own post, this is from Smokin 

A story is coming out of a dad, ex-military, who allegedly water boarded his 4 year old because she would not recite the alphabet.
 
So many emotions run though me from extreme sadness to extreme rage and venom toward this "father" who would do this to his own child. But when I do my best to put my emotions to the side and look at this situation rationally, I can not escape the fact that Obama, Hannity, Liz Chenney, Rush, and Beck along with the rest who endorsed water boarding or refused to prosecute those who committed the crime are equally responsible for this.

I'll say it again, and in all honesty I believe I am being rational here. Obama water boarded a 4 year old girl. He allowed this ridiculous dialog to occur debating the merrits of torture, and allowed half a country to believe that water boarding was not torture to the point that a father would do it to his own 4 year old daughter. Of course the father is responsible for his actions and in no way am I making excuses for this guy. But seriously, when was the last time we heard of a parent water boarding their child?! Did we ever hear of such conduct before Bush and his administration conducted and promoted torture, or did we start hearing of such atrocities after this conduct was defending by republicans and ignored by Obama and our "justice" system? We as a society failed this little girl, some more than others, but IMHO, Obama, rush, beck, Chenney, Bush, Eric Holder, are just a few at the top of the list. I believe them to be just as guilty as this douche who actually committed the crime.

by MedfordTim on 02/08/2010 04:47:08 PM EST

Some serious problems, maybe anger issues or full blown PTSD. Odds are he would have done something else like tasering her a few times, though I agree he can't get charged for torturing her since water boarding is not torture which now backed up by the Obama admin. He did beat her a few times however. And you will have more Soldiers losing it the longer the war goes on so again it is Obama's fault now for as long as he wants to stay in a place that will NEVER be fixed.

by Alloy on 02/08/2010 04:50:40 PM EST

[ Parent ]
This isn't my post, it's actually from Smokin'. It was moved into this thread, so if you have a reply, it's to Smokin' - not me.

by MedfordTim on 02/08/2010 04:53:10 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I think its awful that this little girl had to endure such punishment. It is totally unjustified and should be punished appropriately...

But please understand that water boarding has been practiced for CENTURIES! In its current form, the way we know it, has been handed down from regime to regime stretching from China, Russia, the Middle East and America.

The North Vietnamese VC troops would do this routinely to our soldiers in an effort to extract strategic location info - They learned it from the Chinese, who have nearly perfected torture methods for the last 400 years.

I hate how everyone thinks that water boarding only occurred during the Bush years - it has been happening since the Civil War in this country, if not earlier! The only reason we know about it now is that wonderful circulation of knowledge called the internet...

Torture has always been used. It will always be utilized if the need arises. People who oppose it are truly justified in their beliefs, but they are also truly being unrealistic to think that we can make it go away.

We can't, and we won't - its too valuable a tool to let go...

:(

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 06:55:15 PM EST

[ Parent ]
But please understand that water boarding has been practiced for CENTURIES!

So has rape.

So has spousal abuse.

So has genocide.

So has corruption.

So has theft.

So has murder.

by OneHitKill on 02/08/2010 07:48:37 PM EST

[ Parent ]
At eliminating any of those?

My point exactly - stop bellyaching, put your big girl panties on and immerse yourself in the real world...

Welcome...

:)

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 07:58:01 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Successful or not, we haven't stopped trying to eliminate them, and I doubt we ever will. Get on board already. Your attitude is unacceptably lazy.

by OneHitKill on 02/08/2010 08:10:02 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Is completely realistic. As a teacher of history, I know that we will never eliminate the animal nature of human beings.

We must learn to regulate, legislate and adjust to the times, but eliminating anything on your list is out of reach and just silly to waste energy trying...

:)

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 08:13:32 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Teachers America has, you should know we are products of our environment first and foremost. You idiots cultivate this type of behavior.

by Alloy on 02/08/2010 08:19:40 PM EST

[ Parent ]
...you should know the damn difference between waterboarding (torture) in the civil war and doing the same at Guantanamo.

Mainly that since the end of WW2, it has been an illegal act. Which wasn't the case so much in the times you refer to.

The question is: Why aren't the "Law and Order" types insisting on the law being followed and the perpetrators be brought into a courtroom - as the American Justice System calls for? Instead, we get excuses and justifications of "oh, it's always going to happen."

This whole sidetrack also begs the question: What does WW2 and Civil War waterboarding have to do with the near drowning of a young girl? Did she have vital information about a nuclear device set to go off on the playground in the next 24 Hrs??? An assasination plot against the student body president?

I would like to hear more of the background of this case - I think someone, somewhere, threw in "waterboarding" as a way to make the story "sexier"...

by MedfordTim on 02/08/2010 09:32:07 PM EST

[ Parent ]
The violent act against this young girl, Tim. In no way is it ever justifiable to abuse a child.

I am merely stating the fact that the US has used torture methods throughout its history and its not going to stop because it happens to be "illegal."

The CIA, NSA and military work on their own rules - anyone who has ever dealt with these entities take that as a given. Its the common man, the people who don't know or who don't care to know who stand up and scream for justice. Their screams are falling on deaf ears.

Its not gonna change. Even if Obama were to go through and wipe the slate clean, convicting those who are guilty, it will always continue. That's how they get shit done.

I'm sorry that the truth hurts, Tim. I'm horrified that this child suffered this abuse, but perhaps we should look at the mental condition of the dad. He's PTSD for sure. What the Hell is he doing with a kid in his care???

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 09:48:59 PM EST

[ Parent ]
This is the very same as you and your ilk's crusade against so-called "political correctness." You just label it an impassable barrier because that's the easiest way to avoid improving yourselves. You can't be bothered to try anything difficult. It's a wonder you ever learned to walk.

by OneHitKill on 02/08/2010 10:49:34 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Waterboarding is not torture so you don't have to worry about "condoning" anything. As your man crush has pointed out on more than one occasion about waterboarding   "What we're currently debating is prosecuting government officials for making a few al Qaeda top bananas temporarily uncomfortable."

Yes TexiCon says, Waterboarding is fun! (none / 0)

Thousands of young idiots have tried waterboarding
, and they agree that the process is mildly uncomfortable.
So this guy made his kid mildly uncomfortable, so it's no big deal. I don't even know why we are having a discussion about this.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative." John Stuart Mill

by Hubble on 02/08/2010 11:08:47 PM EST

[ Parent ]
we should just stop trying, right? i mean, those things are gonna happen anyway so why should we even bother? i'm pretty sure you just advocated complete anarchy. 

by voodoofrnchtoast on 02/09/2010 03:57:14 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Its about being realistic in how we approach these issues.

Calling for torture to be ended is all well and good, but its silly to think that it can realistically be acheived.
Same thing goes for the other crimes Jesse listed.

We have punishments, we have rehabilitation, but when it comes right down to it, all of the good intention of our laws and people mean about didley squat...

I'm not calling for anarchy, I just want Liberals to get a clue (another thing that cannot happen, apparently...)

:)

by bobo1 on 02/09/2010 05:21:27 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Odd considering that all the experts on interrogation adamantly oppose torture and call it ineffective and counter productive. There are literally thousands of crimes and cases we've conducted/interrogated without torture and have been successful, yet the standards and practice should change simply because the enemy is a Muslim?

What are you afraid of, do you really think Muslims have special powers and are so superior to you that they require a different set of interrogation techniques than the techniques that have proven to work? Its just ridiculous to suggest that you need torture when generals in the army say it will only lead to harm our soldiers.

Bobo, you are guilty of waterboarding a 4 year old girl IMHO, and you will be guilty for the torture our soldiers will face in future wars. You rot America and are a cancer to the ideals we should be protecting.

by Smokin on 02/09/2010 05:50:35 PM EST

[ Parent ]
...that you keep using a happy smiley face at the of your comments when the topic of discussion is a 4-year-old who got tortured by her father.

by mochalex on 02/09/2010 06:04:50 PM EST

[ Parent ]
i'm just sayin that pretty much every single person who has that same thought process will be completely content with other people suffering while just blowing it off as "inevitable"..... until it happens to them. then they go overboard playing the victim and being outraged at the apathy being displayed to them, when it's exactly how they've been acting all along. the tragedy is that it takes some cruel thing happening to THOSE people before they seem to care. it's practically the same thing as not learning from other's experience. you say "history tells us that crime is inevitable and therefore it's pointless to try and prevent it/do anything about it." whereas i say if we didn't do anything, how much worse do you think it would be? i'm kinda seeing a real world version of Mad Max, or Fallout 3; pick your own apocalypse story. i'm just sayin something has to be done, regardless of how pointless it seems in the long run. if nothing else, it's creating jobs (cops, firemen, doctors, etc) and it might just be helping to keep the world a slightly better place than it could be. you republicans like to have "faith" and not "hope". not everybody can be saved, and not every crime can be prevented, but the fire victim who was rescued just in time, or the mugging victim who sees their assailants put in jail, or the rape victim who was on the verge of blowing her brains out til she spoke to a counsellor would probably disagree that we should just give up. 

by voodoofrnchtoast on 02/09/2010 11:53:49 PM EST

[ Parent ]
US execute Chinese soldiers for water boarding ours?

by Alloy on 02/08/2010 08:16:21 PM EST

[ Parent ]
In what era are you referring to?

by bobo1 on 02/08/2010 08:30:41 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Bobo,

He's asking about the Japanese soldiers the Allies executed after WW2 for the war crime of waterboarding and other tortures.

"It's very possible" we executed Chinese soldiers??? "In what ERA" is your question???

As a History teacher, you make a fine parking lot attendant...

by MedfordTim on 02/08/2010 09:38:29 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I'll bet he has his share of these.

by OneHitKill on 02/08/2010 10:52:19 PM EST

[ Parent ]

I find it interesting that the media has chosen to cover this story by calling what this horrible man did to his daughter waterboarding. I find what he did disgusting and psychotic. I also find waterboarding as a form of interrogation disgusting and psychotic. While what he did  might be similar to waterboarding I also find the media very sensationalistic calling this waterboarding. They chose to call this act of child abuse waterboarding because the man was formerly in the miltiary. And jumping to the assumption that because he had been in the military that he found the use of waterboarding to be a usefull tool of motivation is preposterous. This man didnt do this because he thought it was a good motivating technique....thats just bullS... no matter what he says now. This man did this because he is an abuser, because he is evil, because he is mentally ill, whatever....you want to call it. He held his daughters head under water....sadly horrible people have done disgusting things like this to children forever. They feel that their children are their possesions. They beat them, they torture them, they rape them, they starve them.....its evil, detestable, horrific. And I hate that the media is trying to exploit it calling it waterboarding. Now do I agree with the military waterboarding.. again....no. But I also feel the media knows that waterboarding torture is a hot topic right now....with many opinions on both sides. So to use this to their advantage to sell their news, I feel is wrong.

Ok fine even if he at some point comes out and says; I meant it to be "waterboarding" in those words....I still don't believe he ever thought it was an ok practice. This man knows he's doing something evil, knows this is wrong. Most people on this kind of level of crazy...like the Jeffery Dahmers of the world, when asked if what they did is wrong, answer that yes they know what they did was wrong. That they liked doing it. This man is evil!

by phoebesmoon on 02/09/2010 08:51:11 AM EST

Yes, the media is trying to grab attention to this story by featuring the "water boarding" and yeah its kinda disgusting on their part. BUT, taking someone by the feet, hanging them upside down, and dunking them in water IS waterboarding. Waterboarding can be dine in various ways, as long as the body is hung upside down in any kind of an angle and water enters nasal cavity, they get the sensation of drowning.

by Smokin on 02/09/2010 02:51:48 PM EST

[ Parent ]
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