CIA admits to ‘waterboarding’

Michael Hayden, the director of the CIA, told Congress on Tuesday that shortly after the September 11 attacks, the CIA used a widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding.

 

The US Congress has been debating banning the CIA from using this technique, which involves strapping a suspect down and pouring water over their cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning.

 

But White House spokesman Tony Fratto maintained that the practice – which the CIA said it had carried out on three high-profile al-Qaeda detainees – was legal.

 

Inside Story asks if torture is justified for national security. And what does the US admission mean for human rights globally?

 
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Watch part two of this episode of Inside Story on YouTube

This episode of Inside Story aired on Thursday, February 7, 2008