What’s it Like to be Waterboarded?

Do you wonder what it feels like to be waterboarded? I am not about to volunteer myself.
I don’t like dentist chairs that lean way back so that is about as close to waterboarding as I want to get.
According to ABC News, in waterboarding, a prisoner is tied to an inclined board with feet raised slightly above the head.“Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.”
When wet towels are used to cover the face of a person being waterboarded, it can stop the person’s breathing for up to 40 seconds at a time.
John Sifton of Human Rights Watch said it amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law.
Three folks have been waterboarded and documented their experiences.
The first was conservative radio host and former Fox News morning show regular Mancow, also known as Erich Muller.
Mancow agreed to be waterboarded to prove it wasn’t torture. The proof was in the pudding. He lasted just six to seven seconds before calling it quits.
According to NBC Chicago: “Witnesses said Mancow thrashed on the table, and even instantly threw the toy cow he was holding as his emergency tool to signify when he wanted the experiment to stop.”
The average person can take waterboarding for 14 seconds according to Marine Sgt. Clay South, who waterboarded Mancow.
Mancow was lying on a 7-foot long table with his legs elevated higher than his head and his feet tied.
“It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Mancow told listeners. “It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back…It was instantaneous…and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture.”
He said waterboarding produced the feeling of drowning. Mancow said if he had known how bad it was going to be, he would not have tried it.
Former Minnesota Governor and pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura is no fan of the technique. He was waterboarded as part of his military training.
Ventura suggested if waterboarding is okay, then why don’t police use it as an interrogation technique? Ventura said our government only seems to waterboard Muslims.
CIA officers told ABC News that waterboarding is an unreliable tool for interrogation.
Writer Christopher Hitchens also volunteered to be waterboarded. He said it does not simulate drowning but truly makes one feel they are actually drowning.
Hitchens had three layers of towels over his face while lashed to a board with his feet higher than his heart. He said he could not determine if he was breathing in or out.
Hitchens described the feeling as having a huge wet paw over his face. He said he could feel a slow cascade of water going up his nose.
Inhaling only brought the wet towels tighter on his face, said Hitchens.
“Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture,” said Hitchens.
For anyone who has had a near drowning incident or been with a child with asthma, you will realize waterboarding is a fiendish crime. It is unimaginable that the United States of America would resort to this type of torture.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney claims torturing detainees saved American lives.
Matthew Alexander, senior military interrogator for the task force that tracked down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq told filmmaker Robert Greenwald:”Torture does not save lives. Torture costs us lives.”
He continued: “And the reason why is that our enemies use it, number one, as a recruiting tool…These same foreign fighters who came to Iraq to fight because of torture and abuse….literally cost us hundreds if not thousands of American lives.”
Alexander said captured foreign freedom fighters said the number one reason they came to fight in Iraq was the U.S. led torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. He said the foreign fighters that came to Iraq made up 90 percent of the suicide bombers.
Alexander said when the foreign fighters saw photos of Muslims being tortured, it was enough to make them come to Iraq and die for what they believe was a noble cause.
To see the interview, go to YouTube and put “Former Interrogator Rebukes Cheney for Torture Speech,” in the search box.