Waterboarding: Difference between revisions

Not to be confused with Wakeboarding.

Painting of waterboarding from Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Prison

Waterboarding is a very controversial enhanced interrogation technique that the Bush administration and its supporters claim is a very effective method of obtaining information that ideally does not cause long term bodily harm, while many terrorism experts disagree and legal experts, among which the UN believe it to be torture Other names for it are known as water torture or water cure. It is used to obtain information, coerce confessions, and for punishment and intimidation. Waterboarding consists of immobilizing an individual and pouring water over his face to simulate drowning, which produces a severe gag reflex, making the subject believe his death is imminent while ideally not causing permanent physical damage. "The threat of imminent death" is one of the legal definitions of torture under U.S. law . The UN Convention against Torture prohibits the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering In November 2005, anonymous sources told ABC news that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency uses waterboarding, but does not deem it torture. However CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson has said the techniques "appeared to constitute cruel, and degrading treatment under the (Geneva) convention." (ibid.)

The practice garnered renewed attention and notoriety in September 2006 when further reports charged that the Bush administration had authorized its use in the interrogations of U.S. War on Terrorism detainees. Though the Bush administration has never formally acknowledged its use, Vice President Dick Cheney told an interviewer that he did not believe "a dunk in water" to be a form of torture but rather a "very important tool" for use in interrogations, including that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

According to Republican United States Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, waterboarding is "very exquisite torture" and a mock execution, which can damage the subject's psyche "in ways that may never heal." In a May 15, 2007 debate among Republican Party candidates for U.S. president, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would allow waterboarding in a situation where "we know that there's going to be another attack and these people know about it."

Technique

The waterboarding technique, characterized in 2005 by former CIA director Porter J. Goss as a "professional interrogation technique," is described as follows by journalist Julia Layton:

Water boarding as it is currently described involves strapping a person to an inclined board, with his feet raised and his head lowered. The interrogators bind the person's arms and legs so he can't move at all, and they cover his face. In some descriptions, the person is gagged, and some sort of cloth covers his nose and mouth; in others, his face is wrapped in cellophane. The interrogator then repeatedly pours water onto the person's face. Depending on the exact setup, the water may or may not actually get into the person's mouth and nose; but the physical experience of being underneath a wave of water seems to be secondary to the psychological experience. The person's mind believes he is drowning, and his gag reflex kicks in as if he were choking on all that water falling on his face.

CIA officers who subject themselves to the technique last an average of 14 seconds before caving in.

Effects

The physical effects of poorly executed waterboarding can include 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 long lasting. Prolonged waterboarding can also result in death.

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, "[He] 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."

Proponents argue that the technique is effective in producing information while only being used as a last resort to obtain what is deemed to be critical information. They also argue that there is almost no risk of long-term bodily harm and that it has been made known that so far it has worked every time it has been tried. Opponents, however, argue that this information may not be reliable because a person under such duress may be willing to admit to anything. The UN Convention Against Torture, which the United States ratified in 1994 [1], provides in Article 2: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

Legality

In general

All countries that are signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture have agreed they are subjected to the explicit prohibition on torture under any condition, and as such there exists no legal exception under this treaty.

United States

The U.S. is signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture, despite the suggestion that "enhanced interrogation techniques" fall outside the scope of this treaty they are legally bound by the universal prohibition on any form of torture.

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. Nevertheless, under international law any person violating the laws of war is criminally liable under the command responsibility and could still be prosecuted for war crimes.

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, and critics of waterboarding draw parallels between the two techniques, citing the similar usage of water on the subject.

In an older case, a Japanese military officer, Yukio Asano, was tried by the United States 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. The charges of Violation of the Laws and Customs of War against Asano also included "beating using hands, fists, club; kicking; burning using cigarettes; strapping on a stretcher head downward."

Use by the United States Government

There have been many reports that the United States has used waterboarding to interrogate prisoners captured in its War on Terrorism. In November 2005, ABC News reported that former CIA agents claimed the CIA had engaged in a modern form of waterboarding, along with five other "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", against suspected members of al Qaeda, including Khaled Sheikh Mohammed. On October 27, 2006 during a radio interview with Scott Hennen of radio station WDAY, Vice President Dick Cheney apparently agreed with the use of waterboarding, specifically mentioning Khaled Sheikh Mohammed. The following are the questions and answers at issue, excerpted from the White House transcript of the interview:

Hennen: "...And I've had people call and say, please, let the Vice President know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves American lives. Again, this debate seems a little silly given the threat we face, would you agree?"

Cheney: "I do agree. And I think the terrorist threat, for example, with respect to our ability to interrogate high value detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed provided us with enormously valuable information about how many there are, about how they plan, what their training processes are and so forth, we've learned a lot. We need to be able to continue that."

...

Hennen: "Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?"

Cheney: "Well, it's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in."

The White House later denied that Cheney had confirmed the use of waterboarding, saying that U.S. officials do not talk publicly about interrogation techniques because they are classified. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said that Cheney had not been referring to waterboarding, but only to a "dunk in the water", prompting one reporter to ask, "So dunk in the water means, what, we have a pool now at Guantanamo and they go swimming?" Tony Snow replied, "You doing stand-up?"

Historical uses

A form of waterboarding was used by agents of the Dutch East India Company during the Amboyna Massacre in 1623. At that time, it consisted of wrapping cloth around a victim's head, after which the torturers "poured the water softly upon his head until the cloth was full, up to the mouth and nostrils, and somewhat higher, so that he could not draw breath but he must suck in all the water." In one case, this was applied three or four times successively until the victim's "body was swollen twice or thrice as big as before, his cheeks like great bladders, and his eyes staring and strutting out beyond his forehead."

During World War II, waterboarding was one of the torture methods used by Japanese troops, especially the Kempeitai. During the Double Tenth Incident, it consisted of binding or holding down the victim on his back, placing a cloth over his mouth and nose, and pouring water onto the cloth. In this version, interrogation continued during the torture, with the interrogators beating the victim if he did not reply and the victim swallowing water if he opened his mouth to answer or breathe; when the victim could ingest no more water, the interrogators would beat or jump on his distended stomach.

Waterboarding was one of the torture methods used by the Khmer Rouge at Tuol Sleng between 1975 and 1979. It was depicted in a painting by the former inmate Vann Nath. [2]

Waterboarding in popular culture

• The historical form of waterboarding was represented as having been used by the Waffen SS of the Third Reich in the Robin Williams movie Jakob the Liar.
• The modern form of waterboarding is dramatised in some detail in the Patrick Robinson novel USS Seawolf and the 2006 Robert DeNiro film The Good Shepherd.
• In an episode of E-Ring entitled "Hard Cell", a member of the team is subjected to waterboarding. The episode itself is a dialogue on the debate of the use of torture to obtain information that might save other lives.

See also

• At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
• Command responsibility
• Dunking