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Robert Windrem

Bottled Waterboarding

Both Zubaydah and Abdelrahim Hussein Abdul Nashiri told the Red Cross that bottled water was used in their waterboardings (Nashiri says his was drawn from a refrigerator), among other specific details:

Zubaydah, who ran the Khalden training camp, described to the Red Cross an experience mostly faithful to the technique prescribed in the Bybee memo, albeit less clinical:

“I was then dragged from the small box, unable to walk properly and put on what looked like a hospital bed, and strapped down very tightly with belts. A black cloth was then placed over my face and the interrogators used a mineral water bottle to pour water on the cloth so that I could not breathe. After a few minutes the cloth was removed and the bed was rotated into an upright position. The pressure of the straps on my wounds was very painful. I vomited.”

He continued: “The bed was then again lowered to horizontal position and the same torture carried out again with the black cloth over my face and water poured on from a bottle. On this occasion my head was in a more backward, downwards position and the water was poured on for a longer time. I struggled against the straps, trying to breathe, but it was hopeless. I thought I was going to die.”

Nashiri, a Saudi who ran al Qaeda operations in the Arabian peninsula, said he had the same experience, except the water used was cold.

“I would be strapped to a special bed, which could be rotated into a vertical position. A cloth would be placed over my face. Cold water from a bottle that had been kept in a fridge was then poured onto the cloth by one of the guards so that I could not breathe.... The cloth was then removed and the bed was put into a vertical position. The whole process was then repeated during about one hour. Injuries to my ankles and wrists also occurred during the waterboarding as I struggled in the panic of not being able to breathe.”

Where did the bottled water come from? Khalid Sheikh Mohammed believes it was locally purchased. On one occasion, he told the Red Cross, a water bottle was brought to him without the label removed. “It had [an] email address ending in ‘.pl.’”, indicating it had been purchased in Poland, where he was being held.

Robert Windrem is a senior research fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security. For three decades, he worked as a producer for NBC News. During that time, he focused on issues of international security, strategic policy, intelligence and terrorism. He is the winner of more than 40 national journalism awards for his work in print, television, and online journalism, including a Columbia-duPont Award.

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June 1, 2009 | 11:18pm
Comments ()
exploora

I just hope the kids don't try this at home.

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1:39 am, Jun 2, 2009
Hawnzz

As vile as this all is... I had a moment of "gallows humor" when I started to laugh. Bottled water to waterboard... lol

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10:29 am, Jun 2, 2009
Justrunwithit

You know, water boarding or any form of "coercive interrogation" is wrong, but these are not exactly the sympathetic subjects to talk to about it. I mean, given who these guys are, would you rather be interrogated by the CIA, or them on their "home field"? People in the west don't have the first iota of a clue what real torture looks like.

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10:38 am, Jun 2, 2009
Banjo1

Tap water won't make them talk? These guys are tough. Or maybe discriminating is a better word.

Persons of the Left: Let the tears now flow! Pay particular attention in your comments to how this creates new enemies. I always get a kick out of that one, but then I'm easily amused.

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10:42 am, Jun 2, 2009
Josh-Narins

How much harder would you fight in a hopeless situation if you knew/thought you'd be tortured?

How soon might you stop killing and wounding the people coming for you if you thought they'd treat you humanely.

I know these wiley terrorists are too much for many Republicans, but during that little WWII scuffle (much smaller threat than al-Qaeda, I know) we had nearly a half million surrendered Nazis in America.

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11:51 am, Jun 2, 2009
motrbotr

Oh please. Go build yourself a Utopia on some other planet. These nutbags have been beheading and blowing them selves up and hanging people from bridges a lot longer than since we have been over there. You thing they wont cut of an americans head with a dull kitchen knife? They have been doing since we have been there and before so that fact alone negates your stupid logic. Sorry to be harsh but the whole "You be nice to me and i will be nice to you " doesnt work with fanatical lunitcs. It only makes you look weak and ignorant. And then they pounce. As in 9/11.

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12:37 pm, Jun 2, 2009
TheRealist1

"motrbotr..... You thing they wont cut of an americans head with a dull kitchen knife? They have been doing since we have been there and before so that fact alone negates your stupid logic. Sorry to be harsh but the whole "You be nice to me and i will be nice to you " doesnt work with fanatical lunitcs. It only makes you look weak and ignorant. And then they pounce. As in 9/11."

It is YOUR logic that is of the "stupid" variety.

The use of torture was to try to extract important info from the terrorists. Your logic leads one to believe the torture was just payback for the gruesome actions of the terrorists. I doubt, or at least i hope, this was not the case.

I'm sure Cheney, himself, would insist you keep those opinions to yourself. You are not doing his cause any favors by expressing them and besides, he is now backtracking on his own convoluted logic in order to save face.

My advise to you is to write your thoughts and musings in a notebook and then burn it. That way, only you and your God know of your stupidity.

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7:54 am, Jun 3, 2009
roger37

You two idiots just wait until our troops start coming home after being waterboarded, and then we'll hear what they have to say. In the meantime, quit giving our enemies reasons to waterboard our kids.

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12:50 am, Jun 4, 2009
roger37

If you support torture such as waterboarding, you are a subhuman troll. If you had any balls you would try it out yourself, just like Mancow.

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12:48 am, Jun 4, 2009
lawrenceb5

Cheney probably didn't even give a directive to recylcle or to use the cheaper Poland Springs over the Evian. War Criminal!

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11:15 am, Jun 2, 2009
lassie09

A disgrace.

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12:14 pm, Jun 2, 2009
jackee

I'll save my tears in a bucket over this sad treatment and they can use it for the next round.

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12:40 pm, Jun 2, 2009
oldpunk

Ironic that Cheney wants the documents released & he was the one who got the law past that prevents it.

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12:52 pm, Jun 2, 2009
Plantagenet

The irony is that Obama promised complete transparency and now Obama is refusing to declassify and release the documents on torture that Cheney is requesting.

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1:34 pm, Jun 2, 2009
LucienA

Nope the irony is that since Cheney got the laws passed that prevent release Obama would have to make himself look soft on National Security to actually comply with Cheney's request...

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11:54 am, Jun 3, 2009
smitisan

I don't think Cheney's quite finished forging those documents yet. I've seen no indication yet that Obama has even seen them himself, so something somewhere is holding them up for somebody. For sure Obama would look a lot less soft if he released them and they did in fact support what Cheney's saying. The fact that he released them would be completely overlooked in the howls and cheers from the Cheney crowd.

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1:42 pm, Jun 3, 2009
jbeckner

is this a serious article? I know it's not serious journalism but is the writer serious? What kind of bottled water? Maybe it wasn't torture after all. S. Pellegrino?

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1:01 pm, Jun 2, 2009
Plantagenet

Next they'll tell us that cloth used to cover the victim's face during waterboarding had to be a French designer scarf.

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1:32 pm, Jun 2, 2009
socialworklady

This article = must feed The Beast

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2:49 pm, Jun 2, 2009
Banjo1

I know Canada is a boring, formerly second-rate country that has fallen somewhat more into in utter consequence, but aren't there some political questions involving the degree of socialism that should be embraced that would be enhanced by fag-hag opining? I'm serious. (Cue the repressed hillbilly homosexual comments).

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5:45 pm, Jun 2, 2009
oldpunk

Is the name banjo because of the theme music from Deliverance that plays in the background of your comments?

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7:44 pm, Jun 2, 2009
roger37

Banjo, are you still in the closet?

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12:52 am, Jun 4, 2009
chuygonza

Bottled water? Not only were they torturing detainees, but they were harming the environment at the same time. Tisk tisk. Also, for some reason, I didn't feel sorry for Zubaydah and Abdelrahim Hussein Abdul Nashiri. I understand that we must be civil, and that detainees that may potentially be innocent were harmed, but waterboarding is the mildest of things these men deserve.

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5:14 pm, Jun 2, 2009
koyaanisqatsi

In the middle of the night, when you alone and it's quiet, think about someone coming to waterboard you. It is the least that a vile person such as you deserves.

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3:48 am, Jun 3, 2009
chuygonza

Please, we all claim that we don't agree with torture, but as soon as we see it done by Jack Baur on 24, we applaud it and hope that he gets away with it, for the sake of saving lives. I may be vile, but you think about someone in your life getting brutally murdered, and believe me, the mildest thing you will want to do to that person is waterboarding. I will gladly hand you the water and cloths.

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9:02 am, Jun 5, 2009
dwurry

Sorry,

This article is a pack of lies.

The CIA keeps records? You could fill the library of congress with what the CIA has done "off the record."

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6:40 pm, Jun 2, 2009
mattbenzor

THE VICE DICTATOR is now throwing the CIA under the bush I mean bus he is caught in his own lie's each time he speaks.Even the generals are against the vice dictator's denial that what he and Bush and freemason secret society agenda has been up too for the last 8 years was evil and not american Iraq is a freemason secret society war not american these tyrants have hijacked our counrty they claim to be christian but there far from that.They lie to gain power there powermongers and the anti-christ John Hagee calls them in his book "YES" Mr.Hagee the evangelic mega church pastor.jerusalem countdown page 116 #4 on the list.But what gets me is Mr.Hagee will endorse the tyrants for president mr.cheney is going change history alright for the first vice dictator every in american history

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10:16 pm, Jun 2, 2009
deegeezee

Sir, you're about to be waterboarded.

Flat or sparkling?

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6:14 am, Jun 3, 2009
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Bottled Waterboarding

by Robert Windrem

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