More Waterboarding Evidence Comes to Light

by Alyssa Landers

The recent release of official C.I.A. memos on the use of torture to obtain coveted information from suspected terrorists reveals that waterboarding was performed approximately 266 times on to key al-Qaeda detainees.

Many in the C.I.A. were against the leak, which was ordered by President Obama last week. President Obama has famously opposed the torture policies, ordering the close of Guantanamo Bay and other offshore prisons within the first two days of his presidency. The president plans to visit C.I.A. headquarters to speak with members of the agency.

As increasing amounts of information on U.S. interrogation techniques rise to the surface, the controversial debate over torture has undoubtedly intensified. Sanctioned under the 2006 Military Commissions Act, waterboarding, or simulated drowning, was allegedly performed by C.I.A. officials on “high level” terrorist suspects, most notably Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The procedure, largely condemned by human rights groups as well as members of Congress, was conducted in official C.I.A. “black site” prisons in nations from Thailand and Afghanistan to Morocco, Poland, and Romania.

In a recent review of the Bush administration’s “alternative set of procedures” (which include, among other things, prolonged nudity, permanent shackling, the unceasing loud music or noise, starvation, and physical beatings), the International Committee of the Red Cross officially determined that C.I.A. interrogation techniques constituted torture.

Yet many concur with former president George W. Bush’s belief that it is necessary to do whatever it takes to ensure the protection of American lives in the face of what many perceive to be a growing national threat. “We need to insure that those questioning terrorists can continue to do everything within the limits of the law to get information that can save American lives,” Bush stated in 2006.

Indeed, many advocates of procedures like waterboarding proclaim that while such practices may be considered torture, they are essential to “loosening the lips” of suspected terrorists.

According to a poll conducted in 2007, although most Americans view waterboarding as torture, approximately 40 percent of respondents said that it would be acceptable for the government to employ the procedure to procure vital intel.

Whether or not it is more prudent to condemn or condone torture, it is necessary for the United States to consider the impact that previous measures such as the suspension of habeas corpus and former president Bush’s veto of waterboarding ban have on a long-standing reputation of upholding civil liberties.