In 1947 it caused a prosecution for a war crime of the enemy. In 1968 it caused an investigation by the United States Army. In 2006 the Bush Administration won't say whether the practice is used in 'coercive interrogations' or not.
A CIA interrogation training manual declassified 12 years ago, "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation -- July 1963," outlined a procedure similar to waterboarding. Subjects were suspended in tanks of water wearing blackout masks that allowed for breathing. Within hours, the subjects felt tension and so-called environmental anxiety. "Providing relief for growing discomfort, the questioner assumes a benevolent role," the manual states.
Within hours? The CIA had a grudging admiration for Khalid Sheik Mohammed for lasting more than three minutes of the technique. For those who still wonder, dunking people until they think they're drowning, pouring water on someone's face until they think they'll die is a form of mock execution that makes a mockery of the Geneva Convention's prohibitions against mock executions. It's called 'waterboarding.' And our government's unwillingness to deny it would be used drowns us in an amoral pool.
Tortured commentary: A black humor, a sardonic sadness or a bitter epitaph to the death of decency? From Balkinization:
So let's see: when waterboarding was used on our own troops, it was considered a war crime. The MCA retroactively protects CIA officials who used it. And senators who supported the MCA now state that the new law forbids it. But the Administration still won't say that it won't engage in the practice. It still won't state publicly that it won't violate the law.
Nothing, it seems, can make it talk-- about waterboarding.
We are the good guys, the ones in the white hats. You just can't see that in the darker shadows.
Cross posted at The Heretik's Reservoir of Warm Regard
