HOWTO Waterboard a Detainee: Analysis

waterboarding.org tells Boing Boing, The recent White House release of Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos removes speculation by providing the first authoritative description of the waterboarding procedure used by CIA interrogators. New details include using saline instead of plain water as a safety precaution in the case the subject swallows so much water that it causes hyponatremia - electrolyte disturbances from sodium depletion in the bloodstream. The CIA waterboarding program originated with instructors from SERE, a training program which prepares American soldiers to resist torture. The official procedures exceeded the original so much in duration, frequency, and severity that Inspector General concluded that "the SERE waterboard experience is so so different from the subsequent Agency usage as to make it almost irrelevant". The formerly top secret memos describe procedures where Zbu Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 times in August 2002 and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003, exceeding even the OLC's own guidelines. OLC Memos Define Official Waterboarding Procedure (waterboarding.org). This is part one of a multiple-part series, and this first installment covers basic facts: what it actually is, how they actually did it. Part two will be an analysis of their legal opinion on how the OLC's documented procedure avoids the legal definition of torture. Previously:CIA waterboarded individual suspects up to 183 times - Boing Boing Waterboarding in Cambodia - Boing Boing Lego waterboarding - Boing Boing Christopher Hitchens waterboards himself - Boing Boing Amnesty's Unsubscribe Me video reenacts CIA waterboarding torture ......