Waterboarding Controversy Essay

The use of waterboarding in the past has violated in my opinion, many human rights, and has passed into deep affiliation with torture. Therefore, its use should be banned internationally, with consequences identical to any other form of torture. Dating back as far as 1487, waterboarding is considered a form of torture by legal experts, politicians, war veterans, intelligence officials, military judges, and human rights organizations. Its purpose is the same as any other type of torture – as punishment and to force confessions.

According to The United Nations’ Report of the Committee Against Torture: Thirty-fifth Session of November 2006, “state parties should rescind any interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, that constitutes torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.” While waterboarding is now banned in the USA as of 2006, the CIA used it between 2001 and 2004 against certain suspected detained terrorists Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, according to sources unnamed by a November 5, 2007 Wall Street Journal article. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou has also confirmed the use of waterboarding by the U.S. Government. This interrogation technique ceased to be used on July 20th, 2007 when President George W. Bush signed an executive order banning torture during interrogation of terror suspects. The only exception to this order is the use of waterboarding in special operations units in the U.S. military, where soldiers are subjected to it as part of their survival school training. Current status of waterboarding is stated by the President’s attorney-general, Eric Holder, who condemns waterboarding as torture and that the President cannot authorize it.

As defined by United States Law, waterboarding is: “A criminal investigation interrogation technique whereby a person suspected of having or withholding relevant information is blindfolded and bound on their back, sometimes with the fact covered with porous or nonporous material, and subjected to water poured over their mouth and nose such as to simulate drowning and to thus, under duress, elicit information.” Worth mentioning is the fact that any form of torture is apt to obtain false information from the victim, as they are generally willing to do anything to get the torture to stop. This is yet another reason waterboarding is not a practical nor humane form of interrogation, because answers may not always be taken seriously.

There are still many who support that waterboarding is not a form of torture (such as Representative Ted Poe of Texas), as there is no proven result of physical harm. However, this statement is directly refuted by journalist Christopher Hitchens, who was voluntarily subjected to waterboarding. After experiencing a simulated capture and interrogation through the use of waterboarding by CIA officials, Hitchens reported that “if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.” In addition, the release that Hitchens signed stated:

“Water boarding” is a potentially dangerous activity in which the participant can receive serious and permanent (physical, emotional and psychological) injuries and even death, including injuries and death due to the respiratory and neurological systems of the body.”

As stated, even the CIA admits to the potential for harm to the victim of such methods of interrogation. Dr. Allen Keller the director of the Bellevue/N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture has treated many patients who have been exposed to forms of near-asphyxiation, including waterboarding. As he testified in front of the Senate, “water-boarding or mock drowning, where a prisoner is bound to an inclined board and water is poured over their face inducing a terrifying fear of drowning, clearly can result in immediate and long-term health consequences. As the prisoner gags and chokes, the terror of imminent death is pervasive, with all of the physiologic and psychological responses expected, including an intense stress response, manifested by tachycardia (rapid heart beat) and gasping for breath. There is a real risk of death from actually drowning or suffering a heart attack or damage to the lungs from inhalation of water. Long term effects include panic attacks, depression and PTSD. I remind you of the patient I described earlier who would panic and gasp for breath whenever it rained even years after his abuse.” Furthermore, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales received an open letter from the Human Rights Watch claiming that “waterboarding can cause the sort of “severe pain” prohibited by 18 USC 2340 (the implementation in the United States of the United Nations Convention Against Torture), that the psychological effects can last long after waterboarding ends (another of the criteria under 18 USC 2340), and that uninterrupted waterboarding can ultimately cause death.”

Waterboarding’s history can be traced as far back as the Spanish Inquisition, where primitive version of the technique were reported. Waterboarding is also found as punishment in colonial times, torture in 19th century prisons, and used by Japanese and German troops during WWII. Testimony of a victim of Japanese torture recounted:

“After I was tied to the bench, Yuki placed some cloth on my face. And then with water from the faucet, they poured on me until I became unconscious. He repeated that four or five times. … on my face, until I became unconscious. We were lying that way, with some cloth on my face, and then Yuki poured water on my face continuously. … No, I could not [breathe], and so I, for a time, lost consciousness. I found my consciousness came back again and found Yuki was sitting on my stomach. And then I vomited the water from my stomach, and the consciousness came back again for me. … and then Yuki would repeat the same treatment and the same procedure to me until I became unconscious again. … When I was not able to endure his punishment which I received, I told a lie to Yuki … . I could not really show anything to Yuki, because I was really lying just to stop the torture. … Drowning. You could hardly breathe.” (Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 2007)

Clearly, it is right to outlaw waterboarding across the globe. Its use, as with any torture, violates human rights on so many levels – no human, no matter who they are, needs to be tortured in such a manner. There are alternative interrogation techniques that are quite effective, and the United States should be the ones to set the example of effective, humane treatment of prisoners of war and terrorist suspects from now on. Hopefully, other countries will follow our example, leading this world to be place of higher ethics.