Former member of UN Committee Against Torture: "Yes, waterboarding is torture"

Professor Bent Sørensen, Senior Medical Consultant to the IRCT and former member of the United Nations Committee against Torture

On 5 February, CIA director Michael Hayden admitted that during interrogation of three Al Qaeda suspects five years ago his agency had used waterboarding – a torture method whereby water is forced into the victim's lungs, inducing a powerful sense of drowning.

The admission was followed by statements from other senior intelligence officials that they refused to rule out utilising this so-called “enhanced interrogation technique” in the future, while a White House spokesman said the President could authorise waterboarding in certain situations, including "belief that an attack might be imminent."

On 14 February the White House confirmed its stance when it said that President Bush will veto a bill passed by the House and Senate, which would prohibit waterboarding and any other interrogation technique not condoned by the U.S. Army Field Manual.

Preceding the admission has been a debate in the US Congress during which US Attorney-General Michael Mukasey has refused to state whether, in his view, waterboarding constitutes torture. But according to Professor Bent Sørensen, Senior Medical Consultant to the IRCT and former member of the United Nations Committee against Torture, Mukasey and others need not be in doubt:

“It’s a clear-cut case: Waterboarding can without any reservation be labelled as torture”, says Prof. Sørensen. “It fulfils all of the four central criteria that according to the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT) defines an act of torture.” He explains:

“First, when water is forced into your lungs in this fashion, in addition to the pain you are likely to experience an immediate and extreme fear of death. You may even suffer a heart attack from the stress or damage to the lungs and brain from inhalation of water and oxygen deprivation. In other words there is no doubt that waterboarding causes severe physical and/or mental suffering – one central element in the UNCAT’s definition of torture”.

“In addition,” he continues, “the CIA’s waterboarding clearly fulfils the three additional definition criteria stated in the Convention for a deed to be labelled torture, since it is 1) done intentionally, 2) for a specific purpose and 3) by a representative of a state – in this case the US.”

“Finally,” says Prof. Sørensen, “it should not be forgotten that the consequences of torture – including waterboarding - are often long-lasting or even chronic. For instance, anxiety attacks, depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are very common sequelae after torture, regardless of course, whether the victim is guilty or innocent. So torture is never just a momentary infliction of suffering.”

Stressing that waterboarding is thus a clear violation of the UNCAT, which specifies that torture is not permissible under any circumstances, including during times of emergency or threats to national security, the IRCT joins the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, physicians and even many members of the intelligence community in renouncing waterboarding. Moreover, the IRCT calls upon the U.S. Congress to clearly ban waterboarding and all other forms of torture and ill-treatment once and for all and to ensure that perpetrators all along the chain of command are prosecuted and tried and that all victims of torture and ill-treatment by US agents receive reparations, including adequate medical, physical and psychological treatment.