What is Waterboarding

Scared? Waterboarding is a big and according to some, a necessary evil'. It is a form of torture, wherein a person is strapped down in an inclined position with the legs on the upper side. A cloth is strapped over the victims face and water is poured over it, to simulate the condition of drowning. This leads to severe choking and loss of breath. The first records of waterboarding take us back to the 1500s, when it was used in the Italian inquisition. The Catholic Church used this practice to suppress any form of heresy prevalent those days. Later, in the 1600s the Dutch refined the technique by systematically strapping down the detainee on a specially designed wooden board. The Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the 1970s and the CIA in America, have used this corporal punishment, many times. The torture is one of the most cruelest form of interrogation and has a stark opposition from all over the world.

The Torture
It is considered an illegal practice, as of today, in many countries. The technique is brutal and the victim, almost every time, relents to the capturer in fear of asphyxiation. There are various methods of administering this torture. Occasionally, a plastic wrap is used and sometimes the victims body is tilted downward along with the board in water. The physical and psychological impact of the procedure are extremely denting. It creates a near-death experience forcing the victim to give up any sort of resistance and act according to the will of the captor. As soon as the detainer feels that the victim is about the die he stops pouring water or 'rescues' the detainee.

The consequences of this horrendous form of punishment have been found to be severely damaging. Although, in most of the cases the victim never dies, but it leaves permanent damage on the mind and body. The dripping water prevents oxygen intake which may result in brain damage. Also, the lungs may be rendered utterly useless. The victim can be severely traumatized by it. It is a kind of drowning that happens in slow-motion. The 1800s witnessed a more responsible approach from the European countries, most of which banned the practice, followed by many countries in the world. But waterboarding continued in the underground, mainly in the deep confines of state prisons as a secretive form of interrogation. In fact, the 20th century has seen a lot of instances of waterboarding, out in the open.

Instances of Waterboarding
The Japanese used it many a times during their World War II campaign followed by the US troops in Philippines. The French used the same, during their quest for Algerian land and as stated earlier, by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Many instances of waterboarding were reported in the British torture of the Arabs and the Jews, the Latin Americans in Chile and Argentina and the US interrogation of the 9/11 attacks' culprits. The CIA uses waterboarding procedure for training its agents, none of whom are reported to stand the drowning 'waterfall' for more than 40 seconds. On the other hand, a May 2004 report in 'New York Times' claims that when the same technique was used on terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, he survived the torture for two and a half minutes!

A US soldier was tried and suspended for a month for using this form of 'Water cure' on the war prisoners. President Theodore Roosevelt was a staunch supporter of this form. There was a public outburst when 'The Washington Post' ran a story with images showing a US soldier using crude form of waterboarding on a North Vietnamese soldier during the Vietnam War. The soldier was court marshaled by the US army. The nomination of Attorney General Michael Mukasey in October 2007 ran into a big controversy when he declined to categorize waterboarding as a form of torture.

Thus, it remains one of the most contentious issues of the world. There are few who justify its use against hardcore criminals and some who consider it as a gross violation of human rights and ethics. Whatever be the case, the fact remains that waterboarding is definitely a big enigma which continues to choke the administrations world over.