Is Waterboarding Torture?

The morally ambiguous Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey are confused about waterboarding. Both Muskasey and Giuliani have said they don't know what is involved in waterboarding prisoners. Here is a primer.

This is What it Looks Like
Kaj Larsen contracted with former Army instructors to waterboard him. This is not a demonstration or simulation, this is an actual waterboarding session.

Waterboarding was invented during the Middle Ages as an interrogation technique to find witches, Jews, and heretics. The inventors were proud to call the technique torture.

It has been a favored technique for centuries because it leaves no visible scars. There is no lingering evidence of torture to show the world. It was used by the Japanese during World War II and an American tribunal convicted a Japanese military officer of war crimes in 1947 for using this technique. It was used by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It was also used by American soldiers during the Vietnam War to interrogate Viet Cong prisoners in the field. (below) The insignia on the sleeve is of the United States First Calvary Division.

The French used it during their war against Algeria in the 1950's.

The rag soaked up rapidly. Water flowed everywhere: in my mouth, in my nose, all over my face. I tried, by contracting my throat, to take in as little water as possible and to resist suffocation by keeping air in my lungs for as long as I could. But I couldn’t hold on for more than a few moments. I had the impression of drowning, and a terrible agony, that of death itself, took possession of me. ~ Henri Alleg, The Question

Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights First (pdf) produced this booklet in August detailing the various "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" (including waterboarding), their effects, and legal analyses in light of the United States Constitution, law, and treaty obligations such as the Geneva Convention.

Note to Rudy and Mike: Guys, this stuff is illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and a bloody war crime. To say you don't know what's involved is to display such deliberate ignorance as to disqualify you for any position of public trust.