This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like

[kpete]

September 28, 2006
This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like

As Congress has debated legislation that would set up military tribunals and govern the questioning of suspected terrorists (whom the Bush administration would like to be able to detain indefinitely), at issue has been what interrogation techniques can be employed and whether information obtained during torture can be used against those deemed unlawful enemy combatants. One interrogation practice central to this debate is waterboarding. It's usually described in the media in a matter-of-fact manner. The Washington Post simply referred to waterboarding a few days ago as an interrogation measure that "simulates drowning." But what does waterboarding look like?

Below are photographs taken by Jonah Blank last month at Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The prison is now a museum that documents Khymer Rouge atrocities. Blank, an anthropologist and former Senior Editor of US News & World Report, is author of the books Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God and Mullahs on the Mainframe. He is a professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and has taught at Harvard and Georgetown. He currently is a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic staff in the Senate, but the views expressed here are his own observations.


His photos show one of the actual waterboards used by the Khymer Rouge.





http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/09/this_is_what_wa.php

[soothsayer]

1. Ah! A refreshing little sprinkle. No harm in THAT little shower.

Sick!

[Virginia Dare]

7. I actually heard some 'puke mouthpiece...

make that claim recently on the Matthews show. He said it was just a little cold water on the face. Matthews got all in his shit over that.

[Ilsa]

9. Then they won't mind if we pull that little prank on them from

time to time since it isn't torture. After all, it's just a little frat-prank. :sarcasm:

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jacobin]

3. Awesome!! Now we can be just like the Khmer Rouge

And Congress is making it all LEGAL and stuff, so no worries about war crime silliness!!

[Coexist]

5. Is it Gulag yet?

I am ill.

[Lisa]

22. yeah, that's quite the endorsement! Since when did the US ...

... aspire to be like the people who laid waste to Cambodia?

[alfredo]

4. Send that link to your senators.

[Ezlivin]

6. Very useful post. Just sent out a hundred e-mails.

I had hoped that something like this would surface before long.

Now all we need is a live demonstration to put on Metacafe, YouTube and Google video.

Bueller? Anyone?

[KnaveRupe]

15. Calling Johnny Knoxville.... (n/t)

[Wilber_Stool]

8. Mommy, what's a waterboard?

I think it's a new ride at Six Flags. Isn't it?

[Ilsa]

10. Add that to the list on the email about the atrocities of GWB* and friends

We need to start circulating several now. You know the kind -- the ones that used to accuse Clinton of being responsible for a body count, 9-11, my kid finding out what a bj is, etc.

[Hugin]

11. Open note to Congress:

Dear Legislators of the Great Nation of The United States of America,

The The Hammer of Witches (A.K.A Malleus Maleficarum) is not a HOW-TO
manual.

Thanks for your attention.

Sincerely,

Prag.

[Ksec]

12. This makes me sick

I cant express how enraged I am. To think our own countrymen would OK this , is just too much for me to think about. And to think our sons and daughters will now be subject to this because these vermin OKed it is beyond my comprehension.

[Straight Shooter]

13. W is for waterboarding. n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. That says it all! nt

[Bake]

14. How do I explain that to my children?

They've never had to ask me what "waterboarding" is. How do I explain it when the President says it's a good thing????

Bake

[Disturbed]

17. Waterboarding is a War Crime!

What is a war crime?
By Tarik Kafala
BBC News Online


Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention defines war crimes as: "Willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including... willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power, or willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial, ...taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1420133.stm

[madmusic]

18. And looks like this:

The CIA sources say the sixth, and harshest, technique was called "water boarding," in which a prisoner's face was covered with cellophane, and water is poured over it (pictured above) -- meant to trigger an unbearable gag reflex.

[BelgianMadCow]

19. sick to my stomach - thanks for that though

[SammyWinstonJack]

20. Sick bastards!

:grr:

[progressoid]

21. Now that's a sign of DEMOCRACY! Taking lessons from the Khymer Rouge

[Catherine Vincent]

23. I have a bad feeling that kids will try this at home just for fun.

And the outcome won't be good. :(

[tex-wyo-dem]

24. YouTube example of waterboarding...

Robin Williams in "Jacob the Liar":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeDGIqVvaLY

[AIJ Alom]

25. Thanks. Now if only the entire American public would put down the

remote, stop caring about sports and sitcoms or the next newest thing that they don't need and see what our government is doing.

[file83]

32. We are all "liars" in the eyes of the Bush Regime...

[Drewskie]

26. saw the Robin Williams movie a while back where he gets dunked

in a tub of water by a Nazi(he was playing a jewish person I believe). He was strapped to a board constructed like a see-saw with the bucket, tub, or what have you situated at one end. Of course when the nazi interrogator lifted the other end his head would be submerged. Anyways... I always thought that is what water boarding was.

[tex-wyo-dem]

27. Yes, see post #24...

YouTube has a clip from the same movie.

I imagine there are variations on a theme when it comes to any torture method...I've also heard waterboarding can be done by putting a plastic bag over the victims head and then pouring water over the bag, basically gives the sensation of drowning.

In any case, really sick shit...

[Nikki Stone 1]

28. Kick and Recommend

Thank you, kpete. It's always best to have a visual. I'll bet Bill Frist would like to be the first to try this out.

[Buzz Clik]

29. And why do Bush's supporters actually support this?

Because the Democrats oppose it.

[KnaveRupe]

36. WRONG!

They support it because they are a bunch of sadomasochistic fucks.

They pull the wings off flies, and stick firecrackers up frogs' butts.

They are the cancer that has killed America.

(edit for what I hope was a typo, and not encroaching senility)

[BlueStorm]

30. This youtube video gives a very good live demo

of waterboarding.

very chilling indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leDGlgVvaLY

[Sweet Freedom]

31. "Video is no longer available" /nt

[BlueStorm]

37. It was available when I posted it...n/t

[girl gone mad]

33. I think they did something similar on an episode of Mythbusters..

4 or more of the hosts took turns being strapped to a board with water dripping or pouring out of funnel over the forehead. The redhead only lasted a few seconds before she was in tears. I think one of the guys lasted close to an hour, though he said he was miserable. Then they put ice in the water and he couldn't take it any longer. I was kind of surprised by how strong the reactions were. They really looked like they were in a lot of emotional and physical pain.

Edit: I think it was Chinese Water Torture that they tested. Not the same thing, as I understand it.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

34. No, they were doing the "Chinese Water Torture" on Mythbusters.

That's the one where it's just a succession of drips of water on your forehead to drive you crazy. Not good but not, I think, in the same league as depriving you of the ability to breathe for periods of time.

[girl gone mad]

35. Thanks. I was just looking it up...

and you are right. It's not the same thing.