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'How Stuff Works': What is Waterboarding?

people.howstuffworks.com — Water boarding has been around for centuries. It was a common interrogation technique during the Italian Inquisition of the 1500s and was used perhaps most famously in Cambodian prisons during the reign of the Khmer Rouge regime during the 1970s.

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  • SeaMowse, on 11/05/2007, -2/+20With the topic of waterboarding being in the news lately, I thought I'd google the phrase 'how waterboarding works' (I'm a big submitter of Howstuffworks articles). I really didn't expect for anything to come up, that would be actually coming from Howstuffworks.
  • weirdralph, on 11/05/2007, -31/+9Reasonably good description of the technique, although the "many see it as a poor interrogation method because it scares the prisoner so much you can't trust anything he tells you" comment is inaccurate. Any competent interrogator always asks some questions to which he already knows the answer in order to get a baseline level of truthful responsiveness. In addition, the interrogated person is made aware that untruthful responses will result in harsher interrogation in the future. Not saying it's a nice thing to do... but it does work.
    • pintomp3, on 11/05/2007, -4/+38the problem (ethics aside) with any use of torture as an interrogation technique is that the person will say whatever you want to get the torture to stop. the information gathered is of little value. the baseline you are describing applies to the use of a polygraph, not torture.
      • knomevol, on 11/04/2007, -0/+10Nice Guy Eddie: If you ***** beat this prick long enough, he'll tell you he started the goddamn Chicago fire, now that don't necessarily make it ***** so!

        Reservoir Dogs, 1992, Quentin Tarantino
    • ruddy, on 11/04/2007, -3/+3i have mixed feelings about it, but it kinda reminds me of The Crucible
    • falseleftright, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1"many see it as a poor interrogation method because it scares the prisoner so much you can't trust anything he tells you" comment is inaccurate.

      You are inaccurate. You do cite the use of repeat and control questions but repeat and control questions do not establish a baseline, like you suggested. They establish whether the prisoner is giving the same answers to the same questions. Typically, this is done throughout an interrogation. So, let's say you waterborad someone while asking if Mohammed in the next cell was a terrorist. The prisoner finally gives in to the torture and screams "yes, Mohammed is a terrorist." Then later on in the interrogation, you ask again if Mohammed is a terrorist. The prisoner, remembering the torture, says "yes!" So, you repeated the question and got the same answer, but it was an answer that was caused by torture, a lesson the prisoner is not likely to soon forget. Therefore, your assertion is inaccurate. It doesn't work. Nice try though.
  • pintomp3, on 11/05/2007, -3/+40a great article by someone who has actually done it:
    http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/10/31/200 ...
    • NekoIan, on 11/04/2007, -1/+8Why is this comment being dugg down?!?
      • knomevol, on 11/04/2007, -1/+8fascists don't like being called out.

    • jtinz, on 11/04/2007, -0/+4This article is well worth reading. Excerpt:
      In the media, waterboarding is called "simulated drowning," but that's a misnomer. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning.
  • dawood82, on 11/06/2007, -3/+90From the article:

    "In 1947, a Japanese soldier who used water boarding against a U.S. citizen during World War II was sentenced to 15 years in U.S. prison for committing a war crime."
    • blackjack75, on 11/05/2007, -2/+5Keyword: Japanese. Americans soldiers do it to protect freedom and love and little puppies while japanese people did it to support an evil empire that wanted to control asia, while it was altogether obvious that this territory should be owned by western powers.
  • hiPpymIck, on 11/04/2007, -16/+7i thought that if you keep someone sleep deprived for 72hrs
    their mind cannot Help but wander.. so much
    that a reasonably skilled questioner can get whatever information they require
    ..simple as that

    (they will get what they want by fair means or foul..)
    • FluffyWolf, on 11/04/2007, -2/+12Yes, that is another form of torture.
      And there are plenty of other "enhanced interrogation techniques".
    • mrurc, on 11/04/2007, -0/+5Being awake that long causes hallucinations. How accurate is the information coming from someone who is hallucinating?

      It is still torture and still against the laws of our countries and against the treaties that we have signed internationally. Why is it that everyone in the world but neocons and people who believe neocon propaganda agree that it is torture?
      • Iconoclast25, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1And why is it the spineless, simple-minded liberal sheep fail to see that barbarians such as atta and bin laden will continue to murder innocent civilians in their quest to force the rest of the world to accept their 7th Century superstitious nonsense as the basis of our lives? This is not "torture" per se and even if it were, employing same against terrorists is more than justified. These animals do not operate by any rules of civilization, so none apply to their treatment, either.
    • hiPpymIck, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1i was only thinking the 'lesser' evil
  • insomniac8400, on 11/04/2007, -27/+7I would find it insulting if this is the only torture tactic they use. They should use truth serums, cut fingers off, cut off genitalia, skin people alive, beat people to death, remove all teeth one by one with pliers, pull limbs from joints, break bones, remove eyes, cut off ears, remove tongues, pull out finger nails, impale with spears, crush with heavy objects, etc.
    • nblsavage, on 11/04/2007, -1/+10You must be a fun date.
    • lebforever, on 11/04/2007, -1/+3..................colorfull. does your last name happen to be Hewwit?
    • webcite1, on 11/04/2007, -1/+3Bush!!!!! Is that you????
    • mrurc, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1/sarcasm ? Please God /sarcasm ?
  • Anarleaf, on 11/04/2007, -8/+6This is a really horrible way to have someone leak information. I can't believe the US could be so hypocritical, its really depressing to note this fact.
    • ruddy, on 11/04/2007, -1/+6did you think we were angels?
      • Anarleaf, on 11/04/2007, -2/+2I never stated we were.Its just that with this and the patriot act, and other crimes, it is obviously a time to strike back.
  • sp89, on 11/12/2007, -3/+49i always thought water boarding was a sport.
    • xtc46, on 11/04/2007, -0/+13seem you were correct... a sport for CIA agents and Navy SEALs
    • pintomp3, on 11/04/2007, -0/+2it is, but you are the surf board.
  • amjwh99, on 11/04/2007, -3/+26Such a stupid method to get information out a person... I bet most of the time the information isn't even accurate because the person says what they want to hear just to end the torture... Would you do the same thing?
    • smegthelight, on 11/04/2007, -5/+1If I wanted a scapegoat..
    • smegthelight, on 11/04/2007, -0/+4If I wanted a scapegoat..
    • essjay, on 11/04/2007, -0/+6If I was being Water Boarded I'd be like "Hell yeah, I did that thing you're accusing me of, whatever it is". Not only is it inhumane, but it's just stupid. Really really stupid.
      • krebcycle, on 11/04/2007, -4/+1Deciding to confess to being a traitor or terrorist or "enemy combatant" or whatever you want to call it BEFORE even being tortured is pretty moronic. Might as well just shoot yourself.
    • Jeeum, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1Yes
    • nick111, on 11/04/2007, -0/+4Torture isn't for extracting information. It's a terror tactic - the purpose of it is to terrorize a population that might be sympathising with an "enemy".

      That's when it has a purpose at all - most of the time it's just s symptom of institutional rot - which is an inevitable consequence of unchecked and unquestioned authority.

      Which is a symptom of conservativsm. Which is why you get former Bush-voters and Rumsfeld chear-leaders trying to defend it, trying to find slimey legal and semantic loopholes to justify it. Which is why you get conservative politicians name-checking Jack Bauer at Republican debates and the conservative audience cheers.

      It's a biproduct of a certain relationship with authority.
      • adrianmonk, on 11/04/2007, -0/+0Huh? I'm not a conservative, but I know that not all conservatives believe in big, invasive government. I know this because I have a good friend who is definitely a conservative and who also definitely does not believe in the government having any unnecessary powers at all.

        This isn't about conservatism or liberalism. It's about people who believe the end justifies the means.
  • redxninja, on 11/05/2007, -1/+17Today water boarding, tomorrow iron maiden.
  • AsylumAleikum, on 11/04/2007, -27/+5How come the lefties did not object to waterboarding and other forms of torture when it was practiced by the Khmer Rouge regime? F*cking hypocrites! The quranimals torture our soldiers anyway, always have. We should waterboard the bastards til they spill their guts, then slowly and deliberately torture them to death.
    • nblsavage, on 11/04/2007, -2/+19Yeah! I remember all those pro-torture rallies from the 60s and 70s. Shaddap you pompous sack of *****.
    • krebcycle, on 11/04/2007, -2/+10Everybody objected to everything the Khmer Rouge did, idiot. The problem with torture is 1) you don't get accurate information and 2) by definition since it's an interrogation technique you're doing it on a SUSPECT not a criminal, so some of the time the person is innocent.
    • falseleftright, on 11/04/2007, -0/+2Stop trying to artificially split us along the lines of the falseleftright paradigm. You tool of obfuscation.
  • adh3isive, on 11/04/2007, -3/+9The thing that shocked me the most was the picture of the US troops smiling as they performed torture on their prisoner. Then I realized that stuff probably happens all the time in Iraq.
  • Lindane, on 11/04/2007, -9/+9So I was thinking. If The Empire hadn't squandered so many resources constructing two Death Stars, and instead allocated their funding to building more cruisers and TIE Interceptors, wouldn't they have crushed the rebels in a matter of time? Sure, they wouldn't have been able to destroy planets, but massive orbital bombardment without total planetary destruction could have accomplished the same ends.
    • krisscofield, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1I doubt very much FUNDING was a problem for the Imps. If it were, I would assume the contsruction of a second Deathstar would've been met a great deal of opposition from whomever handles the money..er, CREDITS within the Empire.

    • sarmatt, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1Gut
  • CheeseburgerBro, on 11/05/2007, -0/+23Now remember kids, do NOT try this at home.

    Instead, be sure to make use of a third-party client country, where you hold enough nuts in your vice to keep things mum. Uncle Dick says: "The best kinds of rendition are extraordinary!"
  • mstoneburner, on 11/04/2007, -20/+4I wonder how many people realize that only three people have been waterboarded, and none since 2003.
    • Lindane, on 11/04/2007, -1/+16And they just play Yahtzee at the secret CIA prisons too.
    • felipe82, on 11/04/2007, -2/+4It's not about how many people have been tortured. It's about that a government agency is allowed to get away with it.
    • Iconoclast25, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1If that is all, that is just plain wrong. Every prisoner in Gitmo should be on their third round of personal experience by now.
  • centralohioguy, on 11/05/2007, -0/+10If you've ever seen the Mel Gibson movie 'Conspiracy Theory' his character has to go through the water boarding technique by Patrick Stewart towards the end of the movie. It's a pretty good demonstration of what's involved in the procedure.
  • acidbathfan, on 11/04/2007, -1/+9I honestly believe the only reason we are having the discussion about Water Boarding in this country is so that we are distracted from discussing the really insane and hardcore forms of torture that are sanctioned by our own government. Water Boarding is a drop in the proverbial bucket when you think about the ways that people have tortured and can torture people not only in the past but the present.
  • skews13, on 11/04/2007, -1/+4i think we should introduce this technique to the attorney general select,literally,and then question him again,to see if he understands what was being asked to him.i'm just sayin'
    • cranium, on 11/04/2007, -0/+9If it's not torture, having the senate use this technique on him sounds only fair.
      • williamdyer, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1Yeah, but they could probably get him to say he sexually abused his daughter. THAT would be a really good demonstration of the "value" of waterboarding.
  • Xuvious, on 11/04/2007, -1/+12A couple videos:

    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d36_1193925708
    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=78e_1179787722

    How someone can say it's not torture is beyond me.
    • blackjack75, on 11/04/2007, -2/+1It's not torture. It's harsh drinking.

      Also known as drowning.
  • riverstyx, on 11/05/2007, -5/+6Well i know what "Watersports" is after having an interesting girlfriend several years ago..
  • erikerikerik, on 11/04/2007, -10/+2So, I have it from a decent source that water boarding is slightly more effective if you gag the mouth and use coke/Pepsi in the nose.
    on a side note
    WTF, this is what we would do to each other at summer camp only we would wrap the whole person in their sleeping bag and do it. And they call this torture. pish. they must never have had camp food (circa 1980's).
    • webcite1, on 11/06/2007, -2/+4You are another nut job!
    • Kinkistyle, on 11/06/2007, -2/+4Wow, you guys are hardcore! Even Navy SEALS can't last for more than 14 secs. If the government would send your the elite killing machines your summer camp pumps out to Iraq maybe we'd win this goddamn thing!
    • Kinkistyle, on 11/06/2007, -1/+1dupe
    • mrurc, on 11/06/2007, -1/+1You are a nutjob in that you don't know the difference between summer camp and interrogation. For one thing, you don't expect that your friends are summer camp are actually TRYING to kill you and you don't go through it repeatedly while hallucinating from lack of sleep, naked and freezing your butt off.
  • webcite1, on 11/04/2007, -8/+3It's time to stop this CRAZY ***** America! This is torture and you know it! Just how ***** far will you let Bush&Co control your ***** minds? Wake to hell up and end the destruction of America and what this Nation stood for before Bush!! OK! I'll do it and say it! Vote for Ron Paul! We need another crazy ***** to end another crazy *****'s agendas!!!
    • krebcycle, on 11/04/2007, -0/+3Ron Paul is not the only candidate who wants to end torture as an American interrogation technique. Just one of only two of the republicans.
  • 5xSTUN, on 11/04/2007, -3/+8America has gone insane. I mean, off-the-deep-end batsh*t nutjob insane. We have become a nation of sociopaths. The fact that we have politicians that can stand up and, with a straight face, say that techniques like waterboarding aren't torture means we have passed through the looking glass. Up is down, left is right, war is peace, and freedom is slavery. 2+2=5, and whatever else our government says is considered gospel, even when it flies in the face of the most casual scrutiny.
    Read Orwell's definition of "doublethink." Read it again, then. We are hip-deep in it. Look at what our government is saying... "Torture is wrong. We don't torture people. Except for when we DO torture people, then it's right. But we're not torturing them, except for when we ARE torturing them, but it's okay, because it's RIGHT to torture them, but we don't do that. Except when we do."
    It is deeply distressing to me that people can hear that kind of thing and be swayed by it.
  • viksra, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1What waterboarding looks like:

    http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/09/this_is_ ...
  • mrurc, on 11/05/2007, -2/+3Would someone please email this to that guy who is being interviewed for the Attorney General's job?
  • livingwater, on 11/04/2007, -0/+3Techniques like these are used to get people to "confess" to accusations. If the suspect doesn't admit to everything the officials want them to, then they will not stop torturing them. What if the suspect is innocent? Are they going to stop at some point?
  • livingwater, on 11/04/2007, -1/+1Time to bring in Tony Robbins
  • uziko, on 11/05/2007, -4/+3Waterboarding is awesome I do it at least once a week, it's better then sex.
  • blackjack75, on 11/04/2007, -0/+2Keyword: Japanese. Americans soldiers do it to protect freedom and love and little puppies while japanese people did it to support an evil empire that wanted to control asia, while it was altogether obvious that this territory should be owned by western powers.
  • mbrane, on 11/04/2007, -1/+2Anyone who thinks that waterboarding isn't torture probably also thinks that Iraq is on the road to democracy. Oh wait ,,,,
  • stillrealvicz, on 11/05/2007, -0/+6BEWARE OF SPYWARE INSTALL ON THIRD PAGE
    • ryancxx, on 11/04/2007, -0/+2I got it on the first page, what the *****?
      • Istrancis, on 11/05/2007, -0/+2This happened to me yesterday on another HowStuffWorks article, as soon as I got onto the site. What's the problem here?
        • ubergeek09, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1Someone should e-mail whoever is in control of HowStuffWorks about this, it's pretty lame.
    • ubergeek09, on 11/05/2007, -1/+1I'm running Linux so I didn't get it.
  • scottknick, on 11/04/2007, -0/+5From Article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention: "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind."

    So lets cut the crap. As a signatory to the Geneva Conventions the U.S. recognizes the existence of mental torture. And if waterboarding isn't mental torture then there's no such thing. Its use on prisoners clearly makes the U.S. a violator of international law.
    • tidu, on 11/04/2007, -0/+2You're 100% right. The thing is, they're not prisoners of war, they're "enemy combatants"... :/
      • falseleftright, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1Thats true, hey, maybe that's why we don't bother to declare war anymore.
    • Iconoclast25, on 11/05/2007, -1/+1They are terrorists, not POWs. BIG difference.
      Nor are they civil criminals, so the civil rights argument doesn't wash either.
      These barbarians are being treated far better than they deserve as it is.
  • digbird, on 11/04/2007, -2/+1@Xuvious

    Thank you for putting up the video clips. It is not a pretty thing to see. However, I do have two comments:

    1. There are infinitely worse techniques. Amnesty International published a book a long time ago (I think it was Amnesty) called "Secret Police" which had a glossary at the end that listed at least several hundred techniques. One of them, believe it or not, was trained dogs raping prisoners.

    I also remember reading in a book about the Battle of Stalingrad ("Enemy at the Gates") in which the Gestapo interrogated a partisan by threading a wire through his nose down to his lung.

    In the movie "Battle of Algiers," you see French soldiers running a blowtorch over the body of a prisoner to make him talk.

    2. I wonder what the reaction of people would be if the person being subjected to this treatment in this video instead of being a journalist who had done nothing and had no time-sensitive information was instead someone who had taken part in the kidnapping of several American citizens and was believed to know where they were being held. If that technique made him give up the location and the hostages were rescued, I'd say it was worth it.

    Finally, I wonder what people on Digg would say if we have another huge atrocity ala September 11, and in the subsequent investigation, it is learned that several key members of the conspiracy were apprehended, but because of a US policy change that required giving detainees all the rights of US citizens no matter where they were captured, no information about the plot was elicited that could have stopped it.

    I think that some of the people here (some but not all because I recognize that some people on Digg are quite sincere in their opinions about this matter) would be screaming bloody murder about why the administration failed to make those terrorists talk and save American lives.
    • Iconoclast25, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1@digbird - excellent post. Watch to be buried for it; failure to mouth the PC "party line" seems to be a big offense hereabouts.
    • HappyScrappy, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1Punishing people before determining their guilt in a court of law might seem like a great idea until it happens to you.

      As to the idea of stopping something like Sept 11th, well, we already had plenty of info. It wasn't policies that stopped us from stopping it, it was that we didn't put the right information together and act.

      IMHO, an incident like Sept 11th happening every few years isn't the worst thing that could happen to this country. Giving up the principles we live by between the incidents would be far worse.
  • skunkworker, on 11/04/2007, -0/+1Didnt this happen to Jason Bourne in the Bourne Ultimatum? during a flashback in tanking
  • ubergeek09, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1You would think the U.S. government would understand the torture is not a effective means of acquiring reliable information. People will lie if to stop someone from torturing them, it just seems to be common sense. History has shown that torture does not work.
  • Boing, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1Jack Bauer would never succumb to water boarding.
  • dagooh, on 11/05/2007, -1/+1I just saw the movie "Rendition" at the theater, aside from being a very good film it shows a very long and gruesome sequence of torture that includes Waterboarding, people should really check that movie out.
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804522/
  • Dush, on 11/05/2007, -0/+0It seems almost unreal that Navy SEALs who can probably physically hold their breath for minutes upon minutes would relent so "easily" to this technique.
    If something like this is so psychologically horrifying as to cause that, then it must be torturous.
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