I am amazed by the number of people that are unsure if waterboarding should be considered torture (like Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey). So in the spirit of education, here is a factual description of the technique. Waterboarding induces panic and suffering by forcing a person to inhale water into the sinuses, pharynx, larynx, trachea, and lungs.
The head is tilted back and water is poured into the upturned mouth or nose. Eventually the subject cannot exhale more air or cough out more water, the lungs are collapsed, and the sinuses and trachea are filled with water. The subject is drowned from the inside, filling with water from the head down. The chest and lungs are kept higher than the head so that coughing draws water up and into the lungs while avoiding total suffocation.
As you will see in the picture, water is kept out of the lungs by the 15 to 20 degree angle of the subject. As long as the waterline remains below the level of the lungs, the subject does not asphyxiate.
Here is a list of things waterboarding is not:
upright or face-down dunking: People dunked face-first in water can keep water out for as long as they can hold their breath. When one is inclined with the head back, holding one's breath will not prevent the upper respiratory tract from filling with water.
asphyxiation: Survivors of near-drowning experiences report that the sensation of water flooding down the larynx and trachea as they struggle to breathe is the most terrifying aspect of the experience. In waterboarding, this begins quickly, long before the onset of oxygen starvation.
submersion: Waterboarding does not require immersion in standing water. Someone can be waterboarded with as little as a canteen or two of water.
simulation: Waterboarding is actually forcing large quantities of water into the pharynx, trachea, and lungs, inducing choking and gagging in the subject.
Now that you have the power of information, you can make up your own mind.
Thanks to the fine folks at waterboarding.org for the information.
3 comments:
A little hard to read, and even harder to understand how this could NOT be considered torture.
Thanks for the info. I didn't know exactly what waterboarding was. It's amazing that something that gives one the terror and sensation of being drowned without actually killing them would NOT be considered torture. Whatever happened to the ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment?
And just so you know, this post upped your blog's readability level to College Level (Post Grad).
For a great commentary on waterboarding, check out my blog -- for a link to Keith Olbermann's commentary on the subject. The video is disturbing, the conclusions he makes though, are even more disturbing. The places this presidency has gone with our constitutions, civil liberties and rights is downright nauseating.
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