Waterboarding Torture

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Water boarding is a form of torture that consists of immobilizing the victim on his or her back with the head inclined downwards, and then pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. By forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences drowning and is caused to believe they are about to die. In recent months the United States Congress classified the use of water boarding as torture and made it an illegal use by law enforcement and intelligence agencies throughout the United States. The question we are presented with is: Was the use of waterboarding and the many other interrogation techniques on terrorist by the CIA right or wrong, and should they be punished for using these interrogation methods? (Waterboarding…show more content…
Now most would not think this would be a form of torture, but it brings about great results. After being left alone in a cell for a number of days, prisoners become increasingly stressed and agitated about their situation, making them ready to cry out their confession. The next forms of interrogation that are used are the slap and grab techniques. These do not seem like very effective methods, but they scare prisoners and bring about the desired results. Under these slap and grab techniques extreme physical violence against prisoners and ‘torture’ are deemed illegal under national and international law, including the Geneva Convention, less physical techniques are often used by interrogators. A number of slaps and grabs are often used by interrogators and these include; the attention grab, which involves continuous shirt pulling; the attention slap, which, as the name suggests, is an open-handed slap to a part of the body and the belly slap; again, as the name suggests this is a slap to the belly. These techniques used will cause pain and scare the prisoners, but they do not produce long term effects (NatGeo 2). The next form of interrogation is the sensory bombardment. This form of torture can have a significant impact on the prisoner’s mental state. This involves bombarding the prisoner’s senses hearing, sight, and smell for a prolonged period of time. The use of intense bright lights, loud noises or strong smells are used to confuse the suspects, so too are repetitions such as making the prisoner listen to loud noises over and over again or continually shining a light in their eyes (NatGeo
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