How Effective Is Water Boarding?
CIA members who’ve undergone water boarding as part of their training have lasted an average of 14 seconds before begging to be released. The Navy SEALs once used the technique in their counter-interrogation training, but they stopped because the trainees could not survive it without breaking, which was bad for morale. When the CIA used the water-boarding technique on al-Qaida operative and supposed “9/11 mastermind” Khalid Sheik Mohammed, he reportedly lasted more than two minutes before confessing to everything of which he was accused. Anonymous CIA sources report that Mohammed’s interrogators were impressed. Many CIA officials see water boarding as a poor interrogation method because it scares the prisoner so much you can’t trust anything he tells you. Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a POW during the Vietnam War, says water boarding is definitely a form of torture. Human rights groups agree unanimously that “simulated drowning,” causing the prisoner to believe he is about t
