Waterboarding
Waterboarding is a coercive interrogation technique, dating back to the time of the Italian Inquisition in the 1500s. [1] CIA sources describe the technique thus:
"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." [2]
According to the same sources, CIA officers who submitted to the technique in training lasted an average of 14 seconds before "surrendering." In a radio interview in October 2006, US Vice President Dick Cheney confirmed that waterboarding had been used in the interrogation of senior Al-Qaeda suspects, but denied that the technique amounted to torture. [3]
This runs contrary to the practice of previous US administrations. In 1901, Major Edwin Glenn was court-martialed and sentenced to 10 years hard labour for waterboarding an insurgent in the Phillipines during the Spanish-American War. [4][5] In 1947, Yukio Asano - a Japanese officer - was charged with war crimes and received 15 years hard labour for waterboarding a US civilian. [6] It was declared illegal by US generals in Vietnam [7] and a US soldier was court-martialed after The Washington Post (21.1.1968) published a front page photograph of him supervising the waterboarding of a captured North Vietnamese soldier. [8] [9]
References
1. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1356870
2. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=1322866
3. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1026/dailyUpdate.html
4. http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1933315,00.html
5. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1356870
6. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402005.html
7. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1026/dailyUpdate.html
8. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402005.html