ABC News: History of an Interrogation Technique: Water Boarding
ABC News: History of an Interrogation Technique: Water Boarding:
On “Good Morning America” today, Goss told ABC News’ Charles Gibson that the CIA does not inflict pain on prisoners.Yet, in response to Gibson’s inquiry if water boarding would come under the heading of torture, Goss simply replied, “I don’t know.”
Water boarding was designated as illegal by U.S. generals in Vietnam 40 years ago. A photograph that appeared in The Washington Post of a U.S. soldier involved in water boarding a North Vietnamese prisoner in 1968 led to that soldier’s severe punishment.
“The soldier who participated in water torture in January 1968 was court-martialed within one month after the photos appeared in The Washington Post, and he was drummed out of the Army,” recounted Darius Rejali, a political science professor at Reed College.
Earlier in 1901, the United States had taken a similar stand against water boarding during the Spanish-American War when an Army major was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for water boarding an insurgent in the Philippines.
“Even when you’re fighting against belligerents who don’t respect the laws of war, we are obliged to hold the laws of war,” said Rejali. “And water torture is torture.”
Darius was one of my good friends at college. A brilliant and charismatic fellow who has devoted his life to the worthy project of understanding and delegitimizing torture.
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