In February, 2008, the Justice Department decided to review the legality of previous memoranda that sanctioned the CIA agents' use of waterboarding and other torture techniques, when interrogating suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban members. The decision followed the revelation at the end of 2007 that in 2002 and 2003, waterboarding had been used on suspected al-Qaeda detainees.
Definition of Waterboarding
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which a bound, gagged prisoner is forced to breathe in water. There are several techniques: a prisoner is strapped to a board, or submerged, or held down and forced to breathe through a water-soaked cloth held over his mouth. All waterboarding produces the physical sensation of drowning and a psychological sensation of panic, fear and loss of control.
Also see: What is Waterboarding?
Origins of waterboarding
According to historian William Loren Katz:
The Spanish Inquisition in the late 1400s used this torture to uncover and punish heretics, and then in the early 1500s Spain's inquisitors carried it overseas to root out heresy in the New World. It reappeared during the witch hysteria. Women accused of sorcery were “dunked” and held under water to see if they were witches.
In World War II Japan and Germany routinely used water boarding on prisoners. In Viet Nam U.S. forces held bound Viet Cong captives and “sympathizers” upside down in barrels of water. Water boarding also has been associated with the Khmer Rouge.
2002: Waterboarding and other forms of torture approved by Dept. of Justice
In January 2002, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo to (then) White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez that concluded that Geneva Convention protections on the treatment of prisoners-of-war do not apply to combatants who are members of non-state groups, such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This argument was meant to clear away objections to torturing detainees on the basis of international law. This is among the series of memos that the Department of Justice decided to review in February 2008 for their legality.Should waterboarding be illegal?
U.S. Politics guide Kathy Gill reviews arguments about whether torture should ever be legal, from philosophical, legal and public opinion points of view:
With the back-to-back revelations about destroyed tapes of CIA-led interrogations and confirmation (albeit second-hand) of waterboarding by a former CIA agent, all citizens should be asking themselves, "When, if ever, is torture OK"? What is our government doing in our names? And are we OK with it? This is too important to leave to closed door discussions among those in power. And it's too important to leave to knee-jerk responses. Read more...
Also of interest: What's Wrong with the Ticking Time Bomb Scenario
