Waterboarding
From RationalWiki
Waterboarding is a term used to whitewash a method of torture whereby a person is subjected to the sensation of drowning. Although undeniably - at least by those who have experienced it[1] - a form of torture, it's often claimed not to be in order to legallise it, or at least make the public believe it to be less than brutal. After all, "torture" is only something bad people do.
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[edit] Method
The "procedure" involves strapping a victim down, and either covering their head with plastic, be it cling-film or plastic bag, or by stuffing a cloth into their mouth. Then the victim is tilted so their head is lower than their body. Water is then poured steadily over the victim's face and head. The experience of the inability to breathe combined with water flooding the throat and nasal cavities is similar to the experience of drowning, and pretty much sucks.
[edit] History
Waterboarding has been documented since at least the Spanish Inquisition[2], and drowning, because of the intense fear it provokes in the victim, has been a popular torture method ever since.
After World War II, the United States tried, convicted, and executed Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American POWs.
[edit] Modern controversy
After 9/11, the U.S. government under George W. Bush routinely engaged in questionable practices such as suspension of habeus corpus, extrajudicial imprisonment, and torture.
The truly sad part is that there was a debate at all when it came to torture, a method of interrogation that experts agree is not useful, and which violates every formal or informal understanding of human rights.
In 2008, the then-United States Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, refused to define waterboarding as torture. Ironically (or perhaps not), when asked if it would be torture if "done to him", Mukasey responded, "I would feel that it was".[3]
[edit] Does it work?
Given that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was subjected to the procedure 183 times [4], there would seem to be some doubt about its effectiveness - as it presumably didn't work the first 182 times. And it also depends on how you define the procedure. Although he had water poured up his nose 183 times while he was tied down, Fox News maintains that he was only tied down five times while he had water poured up his nose 183 times.[5] So that's all right then, as it's only five examples of torture.
Jesse Ventura, an ex Navy Seal and past governor of Minnesota said "[Water-boarding] is torture... It's drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you -- I'll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders."
[edit] Late experiments
An RW editor who shall remain anonymous accidentally let the bath water run up their nose, and it actually hurt. It was painful. And they didn't even think they were drowning, seriously, since they could sit up. As evidenced by their surviving to type this. Shit, forced drowning sucks, seriously. Please make it illegal, as it always was, Barack?
Another RW editor allowed some friends to waterboard him during a drinking session and can assert that it is really, really unpleasant.
In a somewhat different twist, another RW editor played the waterboard torturer creating a minor national media stir.[6] Once more it was demonstrated to be very unpleasant, and not particularly good for the psychological health of the torturer either.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Believe Me, It's Torture - article by Christopher Hitchens
- ↑ Bet you didn't expect that, did ya?
- ↑ Mukasey has gone on to endorse the new book by Marc Thiessen, one of Bush's speechwriters, in which he claims that the CIA's actions, especially torture, helped to keep America safe.
- ↑ N Y Times on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
- ↑ Fox News on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
- ↑ Three Young Men Try Waterboarding And Tell the Tale
- ↑ Our inner Eichmann
