Katie Schickling
Professor Levan
COM 101
1 December 2014
Waterboarding
The CIA has authorized a variety of harsh interrogation techniques to coerce confessions, some considered questionable, leading to different fates of those detained, including death (Ross Brian, and Richard Esposito). One of these techniques is known as waterboarding. Although this may help officials to confessions that are true and deserved, waterboarding should not be allowed due to what John Stifton of the Human Rights Watch with ABC News calls a "mock execution" aspect of it and it could be wrongfully performed on people of innocence (Ross and Esposito). What part of the phrase "mock execution" does not seem like a form of torture?
In order to understand the pros and cons of water boarding, one must fully understand what waterboarding is. Waterboarding is an interrogation technique used to pressure suspects into a confession of some sort. There are two different styles of waterboarding that are predominantly used (Ross and Esposito).
The first style of waterboarding is when a prisoner is being waterboarded, he/she is bound to an inclined board, his/her feet are raised and the head slightly below the feet (Ross and Esposito). The interrogator then wraps cellophane around the interrogated person's face and water is then poured over the prisoner's face. Almost instantaneously, the one being interrogated will plea just to end the harsh form of punishment (Ross and Esposito).
The second waterboarding style that is used "induces panic and suffering by forcing a person to inhale water into the sinuses, pharynx, larynx, and trachea (Is Waterboarding Torture?). Here, a prisoner's head is tilted back and water is then poured into his/her mouth and nose (Is Waterboarding Torture?). Eventually the prisoner will be unable to breathe, cough the water out, or exhale more air. The process leads to the...