Waterboarding interrogation techniques

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Waterboarding is a coercive interrogation technique that U.S. officials, who have authorized its use against extremely resistant prisoners, state does not violate international agreements about torture. The original authorization for it to be used by the Central Intelligence Agency, on High Value Detainees, considered it one of the enhanced interrogation techniques. This article discusses a specific method used in intelligence interrogation|recent intelligence interrogation]], but is not intended to be a general discussion of "water tortures" in other times and places.

It derives from torture methods, used by various countries at various times, which depend on inducing an asphyxiation reflex; of the historical methods, usually first associated with the "Dutch method", some could cause actual asphyxia or other damage caused by water entering the lungs. Certain Japanese usages, for which war criminals were convicted after the Second World War, sometimes killed and often caused permanent damage.

A variant has been used in U.S. Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training, to help prepare troops, at high risk of capture, for techniques that have been used to extort confessions in Asian Communist prisoner-of-war camps. The SERE methods were never intended for intelligence interrogation.

The position of the George W. Bush Administration was that it was not considered torture, because, as performed, it was not actually considered to cause damage. An Army legal officer said it would constitute a per se violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice assault Article 128, as well as Article 134 about "communicating a threat",[1] but that persons performing it could be immunized under Presidential authority. [2]

At least two variations have been described in U.S. use. According to ABC News' description of the version used by the Central Intelligence Agency, a plastic barrier covers the nose and mouth, and water is poured onto a cloth on top of the barrier. The barrier can block the airway, but it does prevent water from entering the respiratory tract. A "drowning reflex", however, appears to be triggered by the sensation of water flow coupled with airway restriction. [3]

A variant method is described, in the U.S. Army memorandum requesting its use, is described as "use of a wet towel and dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation."[4] The description does not make it explicit if a barrier prevents the wet towel from admitting water to the respiratory tract, or if the cloth is in the throat, making it similar to the historic "Dutch technique". [5]

Use of either method, by the CIA or Army, required specific prior approval by a senior U.S. official. According to ABC, the CIA approving official was the Deputy Director for Operations. Army approval authority varied from the commanding general of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, to the commander of United States Southern Command, to the commander of the occupation force in Iraq (then CTF-7, later Multi-National Corps-Iraq). Some documents suggest the U.S. Secretary of Defense may have been the approving authority for some military use.

References

  1. Diane Beaver (October 11, 2002), Memorandum for Commander, Joint Task Force 170: Legal Review of Aggressive Interrogation Techniques, Joint Task Force 170, Department of Defense
  2. Diane Beaver: Torture Connection: "We'll need documentation to protect ourselves", Torture Accountability Cener
  3. Brian Ross and Richard Esposito (November 18, 2005), "CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described: Sources Say Agency's Tactics Lead to Questionable Confessions, Sometimes to Death", ABC News
  4. Jerald Phifer (October 11, 2002), Memorandum for Commander, Joint Task Force 170: Request for Counter-Resistance Strategies, Joint Task Force 170, Department of Defense
  5. Michael Kerrigan, The Instruments of Torture, Lyons Press, ISBN 1585742473, p. 85