Waterboarding has a long history.
Until witch hysteria ended in the early 1700s, the favored method of getting old biddies to confess to witchcraft -which included things such as casting spells, fornicating with devils, joining covens, attending sabbats and other fanciful "crimes" was to make them think they were drowning or by actually drowning them.
BBC
Hopkins and Stearne ["professional" witchhunters -Elfdart] employed varying methods to extract confessions from the "witches". They would keep the suspect awake on surveillance for days on end, resulting in sleep depravation, meaning that at the end, the suspect could be coaxed into confessing to almost anything. Interestingly, this practice of confession-extraction is still used by a number of armies today.
Hopkins believed that witches fed their "familiars" (animals that would accompany them in their evil practices) with their own blood; by keeping the witch under guard this would also ensure that their familiars would not be able to feed from the witch, thereby depriving the witches of their alleged capabilities.
It was also believed that witches could be stabbed without having any mark remaining on their skin, so Hopkins would use a knife with a retractable blade, allowing him to quickly and cunningly prove their guilt. However, a favorite confessional torture of Hopkins was the infamous "swimming" test. The suspect's limbs would be bound together and they would be lowered into pond water by ropes. Hopkins saw the principle as being simple – if they sank and drowned, they would be innocent and in heaven; if they floated, they would be tried as a witch. He found this devious method simple and effective.
The penalty for witchcraft was death. In England during the 1600s they got off with a hanging but in earlier times and on the continent, they were burned alive. Something that can make a religious old woman "confess" to a mortal sin (damning her to hell) that carries a gruesome death sentence (hangings back then were drawn out executions more like lynchings since the drop-noose hadn't yet been invented) is quite obviously torture since the "witch" had every reason to not confess since her body and soul were in danger.
So-called witches weren't the only people tortured with waterboarding. It was a technique used by Imperial Japan on American pilots:
Link
This is what the Bush Junta wants Congress to "clarify" -that is, make legal- and what McCain, Graham and those other Republitard wankers agreed to grant immunity for. Their timing is perfect: just a few weeks before Halloween to kick off a new witchseason. The torture is the same and so are the special pleadings from the pro-torture morons. The only thing missing is the bonfire and the scales used to determine if the defendant weighs the same as a duck...Consider then, this testimony about his treatment in Tokyo,by CPT Chase Nielsen a member of the aircrew of one of the bombers on the Doolittle Raid against Japan in April, 1942. Captain Nielsen was captured by the Japanese in China and returned to Japan for interrogation.
Q: What other physical treatment was administered to you at that time?
A: Well, I was given what they call the water cure.
Q: Explain to the Commission what that was.
A: Well, I was put on my back on the floor with my arms and legs stretched out, one guard holding each limb. The towel was wrapped around my face and put across my face and water was poured on. They poured water on this towel until I was almost unconscious from strangulation, then they would let me up until I'd get my breath, then they'd start over again.
Q: When you regained consciousness would they keep asking you questions?
A: Yes sir they did.
Q: How long did this treatment continue?
A: About twenty minutes.
Q: What was your sensation when they were pouring water on the towel, what did you physically feel?
A: Well, I felt more or less like I was drowning, just gasping between life and death.
United States v. Sawada et a., Trial Record, Volume I, p.55.18 March, 1946.
Since the US government won't enforce the laws against torture, I hope other nations will follow the example of Spain and Britain when they collared Augusto Pinochet and start arresting and charging these cowardly, sadistic fucks should they set foot on foreign soil.
