Op/Ed: At one point, they called it 'water torture'

Raw Story
Monday February 11, 2008

As the Bush Administration quibbles over whether or not the interrogation practice known as waterboarding can be considered torture under the Geneva Convention, one veteran speaks definitively in today's Washington Post.

"As someone who has experienced waterboarding, albeit in a controlled setting, I know that the act is indeed torture," opens Richard E. Mezo.

Stationed in California in 1963, Mezo describes what he went through as part of his Navy training, which included being placed in a simulated POW camp that was modeled on encounters with Korean and Chinese forces.

"As a nation," Mezo appeals, "we must ask our leaders, elected and appointed, to be aware of such horrors; we must ask them to stop the narrow and superficial thinking that hinges upon "legal" definitions and to use common sense."

"Waterboarding is torture," he concludes, "and torture is clearly a crime against humanity."

EXCERPTS:

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We were all interrogated a few times, some of us more than others. During one interrogation, I was led blindfolded into a room. Suddenly one of the "enemy" hit me hard in the stomach -- a sucker punch that left me doubled over, out of breath. I think three other people were present, but I was never sure. Two men grabbed me at my sides. They put a pole of some kind under my knees and bent me over backward. My head went down lower than the rest of my body.

The questions (What is your unit? Where are you from?) were asked by one man. But we were not supposed to talk. I remember that the blindfold was heavy and completely covered my face. As the two men held me down, one on each side, someone began pouring water onto the blindfold, and suddenly I was drowning. The water streamed into my nose and then into my mouth when I gasped for breath. I couldn't stop it. All I could breathe was water, and it was terrifying. I think I began to lose consciousness. I felt my lungs begin to fill with burning liquid.

Even though I knew that I was in a military facility and that my "captors" would not kill me, no matter what they threatened, my body sensed and reacted to the danger it was in. Adrenaline helped me to fight out of the position the men were holding me in. I can't really explain how I managed to stand up, still with one man clinging to each arm. I only know how horrible it was. The experience was probably only a few minutes, but to me it seemed much longer.

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The entire article is available HERE.