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On November 5, 2007, protesters performed a waterboarding demonstration on volunteer Maboud Ebrahim Zadeh in front of the Justice Department. This protest was in opposition to the nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. Photo by Mark Wilson / Getty ImagesMain Points to Remember
- Waterboarding is an interrogation method that mimics the sensation of drowning, inducing severe psychological stress and triggering a gag reflex, making the individual believe they are about to perish.
- Although it has been used in the training of CIA operatives and Navy SEALs, its effectiveness in obtaining reliable intelligence is widely debated. Additionally, many view waterboarding as a form of torture, condemned by human rights organizations and international law.
- This technique was officially prohibited for all U.S. government personnel, including CIA agents, through an executive order by President Obama in 2009, and further reinforced by the McCain-Feinstein amendment in 2015.
In October 2007, Michael Mukasey, the nominee for Attorney General, faced backlash for not labeling waterboarding, a divisive interrogation method widely considered by many to be illegal, as torture.
Mukasey, a retired federal judge nominated by President Bush, avoided giving a clear answer during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. He stated that "if [waterboarding] amounts to torture, it is not constitutional," yet he never outright condemned the practice [source: NPR]. His response led several senators to announce they would oppose his confirmation unless he explicitly acknowledged waterboarding as torture. Despite this, Mukasey was confirmed and served under President Bush.
Mukasey's nomination was not the first instance where the Bush administration encountered controversy regarding the acceptable methods of interrogating terror suspects. In an October 2006 radio interview, Vice President Dick Cheney was asked if a "dunk in the water" was an acceptable interrogation technique. His affirmative response was interpreted by many as a tacit endorsement of waterboarding. Human rights organizations quickly condemned the remark as supporting torture, though Cheney’s spokespeople clarified that he was not endorsing waterboarding at the time.
Waterboarding is a technique with a long history. It was commonly used during the Italian Inquisition in the 1500s and is perhaps most infamously associated with the Khmer Rouge regime’s Cambodian prisons in the 1970s. As recently as November 2005, waterboarding was listed as one of the CIA’s approved "enhanced interrogation techniques" for use on high-value terror suspects. Additionally, memos from the U.S. Department of Justice, released in April 2009, revealed that waterboarding was one of ten authorized torture methods for interrogating an al-Qaeda suspect. In essence, waterboarding makes the person feel as though they are drowning.
Waterboarding, as it is currently practiced, involves securing an individual to an inclined board with their feet elevated and head lowered. Their arms and legs are bound to prevent movement, and their face is covered. In some cases, the individual is gagged, with a cloth placed over their nose and mouth, while in others, the face may be wrapped in cellophane. The interrogator then continuously pours water onto the individual’s face. Although water may or may not enter the person’s mouth and nose, the experience of being submerged under a cascade of water is less important than the psychological effect. The individual’s mind perceives that they are drowning, triggering a gag reflex as if they were suffocating from the water.
What do intelligence experts think about this interrogation method?
How Effective Is Waterboarding?
In Vietnam, 1968: A U.S. soldier interrogates an enemy detainee using the waterboarding method.
Photo Courtesy United Press InternationalCIA operatives who have undergone waterboarding during training typically last about 14 seconds before pleading to be released. The Navy SEALs used the technique in their counter-interrogation training, but eventually stopped after trainees couldn’t withstand it without breaking, which negatively affected morale. When the CIA employed waterboarding on Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged "9/11 mastermind," he reportedly endured it for over two minutes before confessing to all the charges against him. CIA sources indicated that Mohammed’s interrogators were notably impressed by his endurance.
Many CIA officials view waterboarding as an ineffective interrogation method, as it induces such extreme fear in the detainee that anything they say cannot be trusted. Senator John McCain, a former POW who endured torture during the Vietnam War, firmly believes that waterboarding is a form of torture. Human rights organizations universally agree that "simulated drowning," which makes the detainee believe they are on the verge of death, constitutes psychological torture. The international community recognizes "mock executions" as a form of torture, with many considering waterboarding to be included in that category. In 1947, a Japanese soldier who used waterboarding on a U.S. citizen during World War II was sentenced to 15 years in U.S. prison for committing a war crime.
In September 2006, the Bush administration drew significant backlash for its decision not to endorse a bill passed by Congress that would have prohibited the use of torture techniques against any U.S. detainees. In the same month, the U.S. Department of Defense implemented a policy forbidding any military personnel from employing the water-boarding method. However, this directive did not apply to the CIA, which continued its operations independently of U.S. military regulations.
In 2009, President Barack Obama took a decisive step by signing an executive order that prohibited all government personnel, including CIA operatives, from engaging in torture, mandating instead that they use non-coercive methods of interrogation. This ban was later formally codified by the Senate in 2015 through the McCain-Feinstein amendment incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act.
