Letters: Waterboarding is torture

Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Many people seem to be confused about what waterboarding is.

Waterboarding is a torture technique in which a victim is strapped to a plank so that they cannot move and their feet are elevated above their head.

Then plastic wrap or wet cloth is wrapped around their head to prevent the person from breathing.

Once the person cannot breathe, water is poured onto the person's face. Waterboarding not only involves partial asphyxiation, which is a form of torture in itself, but the flowing water triggers the gag reflex which intensifies the terror of the experience.

Waterboarding can damage the victim's lungs, heart, and brain as well as create psychological disorders. Waterboarding is not a game as implied by the term "simulated drowning" which has become a popular way to describe it.

Waterboarding is clearly an act of torture and has been defined as such by the U.S. for decades. The problem with torture is that people subjected to it will confess to crimes regardless of their guilt or innocence and will provide information if they know anything of value or not.

Torture cannot provide accurate intelligence because torture lacks the ability to separate true and false confessions.

Torture diminishes American security by hurting the reputation of the U.S. as an advocate of human rights and by tainting intelligence with inaccurate information.

Billy Mosteller



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