Q&A: Water-boarding

The CIA has admitted that it used the technique known as water-boarding to interrogate three al-Qaeda prisoners.

Arguments have raged as to whether this technique amounts to torture and should be banned.

On 8 March 2008, President Bush announced that he had vetoed legislation that would have outlawed the practice.

Protest against water-boarding in Washington

What is water-boarding?

Water-boarding involves a prisoner being stretched on his back or hung upside down, having a cloth pushed into his mouth and/or plastic film placed over his face and having water poured onto his face. He gags almost immediately.

Does it come under a technical definition of torture?

Human rights groups and many governments say that it does. The United States government does not agree.

Torture is defined by the 1949 UN Convention against Torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person..." in order to get information.

The US is signed up to the Convention. The eighth amendment to the US Constitution banning "cruel and unusual punishment" is also held to prohibit torture.

The US legal code defines torture as an action "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering".

So why has the US used water-boarding?

Because it does not classify water-boarding as torture and regards it an effective method in a small number of cases.

It makes a distinction between "torture", which it accepts is banned by US and international law, and so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques".

These include not only water-boarding but sleep deprivation, subjection to cold and long periods of standing, and some slapping.

Isn't the US military banned from using water-boarding?

Yes. In 2006 a new army manual on collecting intelligence banned torture and degrading treatment, including water-boarding, forced nakedness, hooding and sexual humiliation.

The manual's publication followed the scandals at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the passing of the Detainee Treatment Act in 2005, which prohibited the "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of detainees.

So why is the CIA allowed to use it?

President Bush excluded the CIA from the restrictions imposed on the military. He did so in an executive order in July 2007, which sought to define the American commitment to the Geneva Conventions' Common Article 3 prohibition on cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment and torture.

The order declared that a CIA "programme of detention and interrogation" complied with the Geneva Conventions.

The order listed interrogation methods and practices that are not allowed. These range all the way from murder and rape to acts of humiliation.

The banned methods did not, however, include the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. In a separate memorandum, President Bush drew up a list of allowed methods, but these have not been made public.

Why did President Bush veto the proposed ban on water-boarding?

He said that it would take away "one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror".

The Bill, passed by both houses of congress, would have brought the CIA into line with the Us military. The Army Field Manual prohibits such harsh techniques.

Mr Bush argues that there is a difference between the military and the CIA. The CIA, he says, is the organisation dealing with counter-terrorism worldwide and needs "specialised interrogation procedures

Is water-boarding effective?

According to ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou, al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah "broke" within half a minute. Abu Zubaydah said later that he had made things up to satisfy his interrogators.

The arguments about the efficacy of water-boarding reflect all arguments about similar methods. Do they produce information or lies? Can the information be obtained by other means? And are they counter-productive?

Is water-boarding still used?

The CIA Director General Mike Hayden told Congress on 5 February 2007 that it has been used three times. It was used, officials say, from 2001 but not since 2003. Gen Hayden, who took over in May 2006, has indicated that he had taken the technique off a list of approved methods.

President Bush wants to keep the option open.