Is Waterboarding Torture?

Do you think the United States Government's procedure of 'Waterboarding' people in its custody is torture?

According to a December 28, 2005 Tribune back pages article, waterboarding is:

The subject is strapped to a board and tilted so his head is lower than his feet. A cloth is tied over his nose and mouth and saturated with water, eventually making it impossible for him to breathe.

When used in the field, the technique is less elaborate but no less effective. No board, for example, is involved; the suspect is simply held down.

"You just pull the guy's T-shirt over his face and dump a canteen of water on his head," said the SEAL, who spoke on condition that he not be identified and who emphasized that he had never used the technique during a real interrogation.

Waterboarding has been described as "the illusion of drowning." In fact, there is no illusion; if interrogators didn't stop, the subject would drown.

"Inhaling even a small amount of water causes the body to close the glottis and violently cough to remove the offending substance," said the SEAL, who is also trained as a Navy hospital corpsman.

"This entire process initiates the fight-or-flight response in the sympathetic nervous system, causing the person to involuntarily raise their heart rate, respiratory rate, and flail and writhe in an effort to break free from the situation.

"This reaction is even more pronounced when the subject is lying on his back with feet elevated and head down. This is due to the fact that the nostrils serve as a catch basin for small, but significant nonetheless, amounts of water."

Because the water prevents air from entering the nose and mouth, and therefore the lungs, the supply of oxygen available for metabolic functions is exhausted within seconds.

"After performing this on a target for 30 seconds and then stopping the flow of water, the sense of relief and then the realization that this is but a brief respite are extremely powerful motivators for the subject to cooperate in the interrogation," the SEAL said.

Practice seen in training

Waterboarding experienced in training, he added, "is instantly effective on 100 percent of Navy SEALs, a group which is probably more comfortable in adverse maritime swimming conditions than any other on the planet."

"In my case, I wasn't even held down. My teammate simply poured a canteen of water over my face while I had my T-shirt pulled over my head. Instantly, my ability to breathe through the T-shirt was taken away and my natural reaction to inhale deeply through my mouth and nose for air caused me to take on small amounts of water."

Waterboarding is also effective, the SEAL said, because the subject realizes that "there are no enduring physiological consequences, which he intuitively knows. This is important psychologically, because he can legitimately hope that he will be able to live on normally after the experience, if only he cooperates.

"Breaking kneecaps and pulling out fingernails does not hold this promise. The fact that the target has a chance to remain fully whole makes him more likely to be truthful and to break more quickly."

What does the Bush Administration have to say about this procedure according to the article?:

Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales recently told CNN that "Congress has defined what torture is, and it is intentional infliction of severe--I emphasize the word `severe'--intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering."

Asked whether "waterboarding" would be allowed under that definition, Gonzales replied that "that would be something that would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis."

To me, waterboarding is torture.