Waterboarding demonstrated in Seattle protest
Seattle Post Intelligencer 1-11-2008
“Give us the name of the terrorists!”
The interrogating officer screamed at the orange-suited prisoner as
he threw him on his back. The officer placed a black cloth on the
suspect’s face and started pouring a jug of water over it. The alleged
terrorist flailed desperately as if trying to pull himself out of a
lake.
As the waterboarding demonstration continued on the frigid Friday
afternoon, a crowd of shoppers began to accumulate around the stage,
set up at Westlake Center. Many observers grimaced as they watched the
performance.
Friday marked the sixth anniversary of the first detainees arriving
at the American military prison in Guantanamo Bay. The waterboarding
demonstration was part of an international effort to condemn the
detention of Guantanamo’s prisoners and the interrogation techniques
used against them.
A national group, The World Can’t Wait — Drive Out the Bush Regime,
organized the event, along with Amnesty International, the American
Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups that have called
waterboarding a form of torture that should be outlawed.
“It was intense going through it,” said the 18-year-old high school
student who played the waterboarding victim. He asked not to be named.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that filling someone’s lungs with water
until they think they’re going to die is torture.”
Those watching the actors had mixed responses. Some said they were
surprised by how painful the technique seemed. But 22-year-old John
Lyle countered that interrogation isn’t supposed to be pleasant.
“Why do the demonstration? It’s protesting by fear,” said Lyle, a
student at Shoreline Community College. “People should oppose torture
because of the moral reasons, not because they watched this.”
The Bush administration has maintained that waterboarding is not
torture. Vice President Dick Cheney confirmed in 2006 that the CIA used
the technique while questioning al-Qaida suspects.
Rep. Jim McDermott addressed the crowd after the demonstration and
called for the closing of Guantanamo, which he called “a black mark on
America’s resolve to defend human rights.
“We cannot condemn around the world what we in fact condone at home.”
The controversial method has been used in interrogations at least
since the 15th century under the Spanish Inquisition. It is outlawed as
torture under the Geneva Conventions.
“Unless you have a heart of stone and no conscience, you can’t not be moved by this,” said Maggie Lawless, an event organizer.