Recently released CIA documents show that their use of waterboarding was more than “a dunk in the water” as claimed by Dick Cheney — the controversial “enhanced interrogation” used by the CIA was reportedly far more brutal on detainees and was concocted and administered with meticulous cruelty.
Waterboarding would have been a luxury compared to the brutality the CIA documents reveal; interrogators used so much water on the detainees that the CIA tried using a special saline solution to minimize the risk of death.
A “specially designed” gurney that tilted backwards at a perfect angle in order to maximize the water entering a prisoner’s nose and mouth to intensify the sense of choking — and to be lifted upright quickly should the detainee stop breathing — was used by the CIA.
The documents spell out exactly what should occur during each two-hour waterboarding “session.” The documents instructed the interrogator to start pouring water right after a detainee exhaled to ensure that water, not air, was inhaled in his next breath. Interrogators could use their hands to “dam the runoff” and prevent water from spilling out of a detainee’s mouth.