You've been dubbed an enemy of the state,
arrested, and dragged to a dank Gestapo-like basement. Men in sleek uniforms and jackboots read off
a list of charges against you, and then begin grilling you with questions. Who else is a dissident? What evil plot to overthrow the government
were you involved in? What members of the military or the government
do you know of who are traitors? You bite your tongue, you'll give the bastards
nothing. The man in charge of your interrogation nods,
then speaks up in an evil whisper... “Oh, you'll speak, you'll tell us everything!” With a snap of his fingers the guards grab
you, then drag you to a table with straps on it. The table has one side lower than the other,
and you are thrown on it with your head on the low end, leaving your feet elevated above
you. The guards strap your arms in and an additional
strap goes around your neck to keep you from squirming. You're ready for this, you're a freedom fighter
and you've been expecting the worst. Burning, cutting, tearing, you're ready to
sacrifice your flesh for the cause. You'll say nothing. But to your surprise your torturers produce
not a bag full of sharp knives and other wicked instruments, but a simple cloth towel and
a gallon jug of water. Smirking, the lead interrogator makes a motion
as two burly men place the towel over your face. Is this their plan? They're going to sprinkle water on you? You do your best not to laugh. Fifteen seconds later though, you're not laughing
anymore. In fact you're spilling your guts, giving
up every secret you've ever had. Welcome to the world of waterboarding, one
of the most insidious forms of torture that's been in use since the medieval ages. Back during the Spanish Inquisition the Catholic
church had a problem- witches and warlocks were everywhere, masquerading around as perfectly
decent Catholics. For most of the population the answer was
simple, string peasants up by their toes and put out their eyes with hot pokers until they
gave up their fellow witches and warlocks. However, with the wealthy merchants and nobility
things weren't that easy, they tended to take serious offense to having their loved ones
strapped to a chair and their toes crushed one by one. Also, a lot of the peasants were starting
to get real 'revolty' about all this torture business. The Inquisition needed an answer, a way to
get information that wouldn't leave any obvious physical marks. They got it in the form of water torture. In the modern age waterboarding is meant to
simulate drowning, but in the medieval ages they did less simulating and more actual drowning. People would have tubes stuck down their throats
and water would be force-fed them until their stomachs distended. Sometimes this lead to water accidentally
flooding the lungs, which, well, led to drowning. Eventually the technique was refined and limited
to a cloth placed over the mouth, with part of the cloth in the mouth itself. Then water would be poured from a jug onto
the victim's face, with the cloth absorbing the water and letting it into the mouth. This gave the victim an impression of drowning
despite being at little risk of actually doing so. The technique would be repeated over and over
again over the course of days, until finally satisfactory information was gathered. Because it didn't do any physical harm and
left no marks, waterboarding- or toca as the Spanish called it- was used extensively during
the actual trial process. Sometimes though victims would need to be
'softened up', and the Spanish developed a technique that involved specifically beating
the victim's body, legs, and arms, followed by 2.5 liters of water poured over the face
with the cloth in the mouth. Waterboarding soon became all the rage, and
the technique was passed down from generation to generation. Agents of the Dutch East India Company used
a technique where the victim had a cloth wrapped around their head and water was slowly poured
over the scalp. The water soaked the cloth all the way up
to the nostrils, making the victim suck in water whenever they tried to breathe. American law enforcement, as well as other
police forces around the world, used waterboarding as a method to extract confessions, or simply
torture prisoners. In New York's infamous Sing Sing prison inmates
would be strapped to a wooden board with a barrel of water placed seven feet above them. A steady stream of water was then allowed
to hit the prisoner on the face, making it extremely difficult to breathe and inducing
a state of panic. Sadly many prisoners subjected to this torture
would die from water inhalation leading to drowning. In Mississippi, prisoners would have water
poured using a dipper straight down their noses, the purpose of which was to incite
pain and terror so as to force a confession. Needless to say, many of these confessions
were completely bogus, as when in a state of such blind panic a person is likely to
say anything to stop the torture- something that even modern CIA accounts attest to. After the Spanish-American War of 1898, the
Filipino people rose up against the United States when it was awarded possession of the
Philippines from a defeated Spain. Learning the technique from the Filipino people,
who likely learned it from their Spanish occupiers, American soldiers began using what they called
'the water cure' on insurgents. The American technique was more similar to
its original form in that a funnel was forced into a victim's mouth, and water poured down
it until the stomach became greatly distended. Then a man would jump on the victim's stomach
until the victim vomited. Initially believing that the practice was
not 'real torture', President Teddy Roosevelt approved of it- until he was better informed
on the exact process and the lasting psychological impact. He called for the army to prevent the use
of water torture in the future and personally ordered the court-martial of a General who
had overseen many instances of the torture taking place and condoned its continued use. The court-martial did not find the General
guilty of any crimes, and in response President Roosevelt immediately withdrew his commission,
discharging the General from the military. Back home in the US, the government had cracked
down on police brutality in an attempt to rein in the overabundant lawlessness present
in US police forces. Mostly successful, the technique nevertheless
remained in use- albeit secretly this time- well into the 1940s. For decades the best way to extract a confession
was to submit the suspect to 'the third degree', which would include beatings and other forms
of moderate torture. Waterboarding was naturally a favorite tactic
though, as it left no bruises or other marks on the victim's body. During World War II, the Japanese and Germans
picked up the American habit of waterboarding and used it to great extent across their respective
realms. The Japanese were especially fond of the technique,
and would force the victim to take in water until the stomach was distended, after which
they would beat the victim in the stomach until they vomited. One American airman who partook in the Doolittle
raid shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was subjected to this torture
for weeks. After the war, he testified during a war crimes
trial concerning his former captors, stating that they would submit him to waterboarding
torture and beat him if he didn't answer their questions- despite the fact that he physically
couldn't answer with water being poured over his nose and mouth. The French would take up the practice during
the Algerian War, and even submitted a French journalist to the torture technique. He would go on to discuss his experiences
in a book he wrote which the French government banned until after the war, writing the following
about his waterboarding torture: “The rag was soaked rapidly. Water flowed everywhere: in my mouth, in my
nose, all over my face. But for a while I could still breathe in some
small gulps of air. I tried, by contracting my throat, to take
in as little water as possible and to resist suffocation by keeping air in my lungs for
as long as I could. But I couldn't hold on for more than a few
moments. I had the impression of drowning, and a terrible
agony, that of death itself, took possession of me. In spite of myself, all the muscles of my
body struggled uselessly to save me from suffocation. In spite of myself, the fingers of both my
hands shook uncontrollably. "That's it! He's going to talk", said a voice. The water stopped running and they took away
the rag. I was able to breathe. In the gloom, I saw the lieutenants and the
captain, who, with a cigarette between his lips, was hitting my stomach with his fist
to make me throw out the water I had swallowed.” During the Vietnam War, waterboarding was
made illegal by American generals, but American troops were still discovered using the technique-
or at least observing its use. As was so often the case, the responsibility
was handed off to South Vietnamese soldiers, as their government had no prohibition on
waterboarding enemy POWs. In 1968, the Washington Post published a front-page
photograph showing two US soldiers participating in the waterboarding of a North Vietnamese
POW alongside a South Vietnamese soldier. Outrage over the publication led to the court
martial of one of the soldiers in the photo, and the technique was largely curtailed by
American forces. Throughout the second half of the 20th century,
waterboarding remained fairly popular amongst military and police forces around the world,
with the technique in use everywhere from South Africa to Eastern Europe and Southeast
Asia. Largely forgotten, or at least ignored, the
CIA would bring waterboarding back into the spotlight at the dawn of the 21st century. After the September 11th attacks of 2001,
the CIA took point on the locating, apprehension, or elimination of terrorists and terrorist
allies linked to the terror attacks against the US. However, the agency soon found itself with
many detainees, and few of them were willing to give any vital intelligence up. Prohibited from actual torture, the CIA pushed
the White House and the Justice Department to secretly issue opinions that waterboarding
did not constitute real torture, and thus the agency had the green light to use it as
frequently as it saw fit on captured terrorists. After the use of waterboarding was leaked
to the public in 2005, Americans were outraged and the White House, under President George
W. Bush, was forced to publicly condone the practice, stating that it was legal, did not
constitute torture, and had resulted in large amounts of vital intelligence regarding Al
Qaeda's operations. Several inquests however revealed that the
information that waterboarded terrorists had offered had already been discovered through
other means, and that other information gained with the practice was extremely unreliable. Inquests on the CIA's use of waterboarding
discovered that waterboarding, much like any other form of torture, had in fact produced
little if any actionable intelligence, as victims were likely to say anything they thought
their torturers wanted to hear in order for the torture to stop. Shortly after taking office, President Barack
Obama immediately banned the technique along with other 'enhanced interrogation techniques'
widely in use by the CIA and other agencies. Wishing to restore the US's credibility as
a defender of human rights, President Obama condemned the technique and ordered interrogators
to stick to methods approved and outlined within the Army Field Manual. During the 2016 presidential election, numerous
Republican candidates all stated their willingness to reinstate the technique, with then candidate
Donald Trump stating that he believed it was effective and not “real torture', despite
numerous studies all showing that torture in any form rarely if ever produced good intelligence,
and any intelligence gathered under torture was extremely unreliable and could actually
place US forces and agents at risk. Many top CIA and FBI officials have come out
over the years disputing false claims that waterboarding had ever helped stop even a
single terrorist attack against US forces or civilians. By simulating a feeling of drowning, waterboarding
can be extremely effective with the added perk of leaving no physical marks. The psychological impact however can be very
long lasting, and in 2007 the United States military was forced to end waterboarding as
part of its Survival Evasion and Resistance education for special forces and government
agents. Its use was discovered to have little value
in training, and in fact severely hurt morale of personnel undergoing SERE training. Wanna learn more about the worst punishments
in the history of mankind? Check out The Brazen Bull! Or click this other video instead!
