Waterboarding
10/26/2006
From Wickipedia
The Free Online Encyclopedia
Technique
“The Water Torture"—Facsimile of a woodcut in J. Damhoudère’s Praxis Rerum Criminalium in 4to, Antwerp, 1556.The victim is strapped to a board and either tipped back or lowered into a body of water until he or she believed that drowning was imminent. The tortured person then is removed from the water and revived. If deemed necessary, the routine is repeated.
Although there are several forms of water-based interrogation, all variants have in common that the victim almost drowns, but is rescued or re-animated by his or her captor. The technique is designed to be both a psychological and a physical torture. The psychological effect is inherent to the fact that the victim is made to understand that he or she shall be killed outright, by drowning, unless the demanded co-operation is promptly given. This perception reinforces the interrogator’s control, giving the torture victim sound cause to experience mortal fear.
The technique characterized in 2005 by former CIA director Porter J. Goss as a “professional interrogation technique"[2], involves tying the victim to a board with the head lower than the feet so that he or she is unable to move. A piece of cloth is held tightly over the face, and water is poured onto the cloth. Breathing is extremely difficult and the victim will be in fear of imminent death by asphyxiation. Journalists Brian Ross and Richard Esposito described the CIA’s waterboarding technique as follows:
The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt. According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaeda’s toughest prisoner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last over two minutes before begging to confess.[3]
Use by the military and intelligence agencies
Waterboarding was said to be used fairly commonly circa 1968 by U.S. soldiers interrogating captured North Vietnamese soldiers during the Vietnam War[4] and it was used by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge [5] [6].
Image of waterboarding from Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng PrisonIn the United States, military personnel are taught this technique, to demonstrate how to resist enemy interrogations in the event of capture. According to Salon.com, SERE instructors shared their techniques with interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp.[7]
Effects
The physical effects of poorly executed waterboarding can be extreme pain and damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation and sometimes broken bones because of the restraints applied to the struggling victim. The psychological effects can be longlasting.
Dr. Allen Keller, the director of the Bellevue/N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture, has treated “a number of people” who had been subjected to forms of near-asphyxiation, including waterboarding. An interview for The New Yorker states:
[Dr. Keller] argued that it was indeed torture. Some victims were still traumatized years later, he said. One patient couldn’t take showers, and panicked when it rained. “The fear of being killed is a terrifying experience,” he said.[8][9]
Legality
A Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, was tried in 1947 for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II, and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. [4] The charges against Asano included other abuses of prisoners. [1]
On the issue of waterboarding, the United States charged Yukio Asano, a Japanese officer on May 1 to 28, 1947, with war crimes. The offenses were recounted by John Henry Burton, a civilian victim: After taking me down into the hallway they laid me out on a stretcher and strapped me on. The stretcher was then stood on end with my head almost touching the floor and my feet in the air. They then began pouring water over my face and at times it was impossible for me to breathe without sucking in water. The torture continued and continued. Yukio Asano was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor. We punished people with fifteen years of hard labor when waterboarding was used against Americans in World War II. [2] (p.10378)
On September 6, 2006, the United States Department of Defense released a revised Army Field Manual entitled Human Intelligence Collector Operations that prohibits the use of waterboarding by U.S. military personnel. The revised manual was adopted amid widespread criticism of U.S. handling of prisoners in the War on Terrorism, and prohibits other practices in addition to waterboarding. The revised manual applies to U.S. military personnel, and as such does not apply to the practices of the CIA.[10]
Notes
1 “Variety of Interrogation Techniques Said to Be Authorized by CIA” by Brian Ross and Richard Esposito, September 06, 2006]
2 Human Rights Watch, CIA Whitewashing Torture: Statements by Goss Contradict U.S. Law and Practice, Nov. 21, 2005.
3 Ross, Brian, Richard Esposito (May 19 2006). “CIA’s Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described”. abcnews.go.com
a b http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402005.html Pincus, Walter, “Waterboarding Historically Controversial; In 1947, the U.S. Called It a War Crime; in 1968, It Reportedly Caused an Investigation” Washington Post, 10/5/2006, pg. A17. viewed 10/5/2006
4 http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=125306
5 David Corn, http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/09/this_is_what_wa.php “This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like” (includes photos)
6 Benjamin, Mark (May 19 2006). “Torture teachers”. http://www.salon.com.
7 Mayer, Jane (February 7 2005). “Outsourcing Torture”. The New Yorker.
8 What is waterboarding? (part II). Brendan Nyhan web blog. Retrieved on 2006-06-28.
9 Jelinek, Pauline (September 6 2006). “Army Bans Some Interrogation Techniques”. Associated Press.
10 In its 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the U.S. Department of State formally recognizes “submersion of the head in water,” as torture in its examination of Tunisia’s poor human rights record.[11]