Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.
For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten[ed] with its use again and again. It then pushes down into the trachea and starts to process a respiratory degradation.
It is an overwhelming experience that induces horror, triggers a frantic survival instinct. As the event unfolded, I was fully conscious of what was happening: I was being tortured. Sampson volunteered to be waterboarded in as part of a BBC documentary. Sampson said yes. He was waterboarded for 18 seconds. The water starts filling up my nasal cavity, turning me into an inverted water vessel. Going through my nasal cavity, it started to hit my throat.
Are you a member of al Qaeda? Do you wear a tutu in the morning? I spit up a big chunk of water, I had it all in my sinuses, my whole nasal cavity filled out, my throat filled up, it was just beginning to hit my esophagus going upward. I had zero cognitive relationship to what they were asking as it was occurring. A wet bath towel was placed over my face covering my mouth, nose and eyes and the water flowed continually. The first sensation is that of suffocation followed shortly thereafter by being unable to expel water that had saturated the towel and gotten ingested or inhaled.
We were eventually told that this sensation was that of drowning. And, this is probably correct. In any event, my ears began to ring and lights flashed in behind my unseeing eyes and my struggles abated. Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue.
See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Read More Previous. On both sides you will likely have individuals ensuring your chair table, etc. From behind or to your rear side an individual or individuals will restrain your head back so that your mouth is facing the ceiling.
Likely, at the same time, they will firmly place a cloth material over your face. Un-wet, one can breathe through cloth, much like having a handkerchief placed over your face. But be warned, you can be waterboarded on a table, on the ground, upside down — in short, nearly any position. The tools of waterboarding are all around, and readily accessible. Now that your captors have you secured, they will likely continue the interrogation.
They may likely say that this is your final chance to divulge whatever information you may have or they think you may have. You may decide to divulge that information in hopes of being let go or you may decide to make up information or to resist completely. However, to have reached this point likely means that you are moments away from being waterboarded. Everything is black, you cannot see a single thing.
You feel your legs and arms tied and held down tight. Your head is somewhere between and 90 degrees. You feel that cloth material covering your face. Next, you feel the sensation of water being poured over your face. Your heart is pounding, you are likely perspiring, which all means that you are likely taking fast and shallow breathes. In a matter of seconds, the feeling of terror has likely overcome your body as your captors pour water over your mouth and nose. Within moments, one feels the strong sensation to gag; they inhale fluids, bringing on the true sensation of drowning.
Or you may try to hold your breath as long as possible, only to find their now next breath awaiting. In other forms of waterboarding torture, one may have plastic material or cellophane placed over their nose and mouth with water being poured over these areas. In either case, the material is often lifted away from the face in a matter of seconds to allow the subject to take a few breathes before continuing with the process over and over. While to some reading this, it may sound rather easy to survive moment to moment.
However, I argue that there is a sharp contrast between reading how this process takes place to actually going through it yourself in an exercise to then actually being a victim of this act. He stated that on his first exposure, he lasted only a few seconds. In an exercise, you know you escape. But in real-world situations, escape is rarely possible.
Waterboarding torture has different effects on different people.
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