A Quick History of Waterboarding

1480-1530: The Spanish Inquisition gives the world the lovely form of torture known today as "waterboarding." It is done in a simplistic style; a rag is shoved in the victim's mouth and water poured on it into the mouth so as to cut off their air and make them feel as they were drowning.

The 1600s: The Dutch East India Company tortures 10 Englishmen and nine Japanese samurai suspected of plotting an attack on the Dutch post of Amboyna. Much as Protestants differ from Catholics in religious practice, so do their torture techniques. The Dutch wrap a cloth around the person's head and pour water on it until the cloth is completely soaked and they can't breathe through the cloth. Not surprisingly, all the men confess to the attack (which was never going to happen, BTW) and are executed. Gosh, kind of like the "attacks" Bush keeps saying al-Qaeda is plotting.

1901: The US Army finds a major guilty of water-boarding an insurgent during the Philippine Insurrection and sentence him to 10 years hard labor for the crime.

October 10, 1943: The Axis Powers and their secret police organizations make widespread use of waterboarding throughout World War Two. The most gruesome example is known as the "Double Tenth Incident" In late September of 1943, six Japanese tankers were destroyed in Keppel Harbor in Singapore. The Japanese secret police (Kempeitai) decided that military and civilian prisoners in Changi Prison were responsible and on October 10 they take away 57 prisoners and torture 15 of them to death through waterboarding. The Japanese up the pain a notch, continuing questioning during the process and beating the prisoner. After the prisoner injests the water trying to answer, the Japanese jump on the prisoner's now-distended stomach.

In the post-war trial, 14 of the 21 Kempeitai involved were found guilty. Of those 14, eight were executed for their crime.

1947: A Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, is convicted by an Allied court of war crimes. Among the charges are that he waterboarded John Henry Burton, a US civilian. Asano is sentenced to 15 years hard labor.

1968: During the Vietnam War, the Washington Post runs a photo of a US soldier waterboarding a North Vietnamese POW near Da Nang. Within a month that soldier was court-martialed within one month and kicked out of the Army.

1975-1979: The Khmer Rouge make extensive use of waterboarding to torture their fellow Cambodian citizens en route to slaughtering over 2 million of them. The devices used and diagrams of the torture involved can still be seen at the former Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia.

1980s: The military government of Chad, led by Hissene Habre, uses waterboarding to torture opponents of the regime. Habre was indicted in Belgium for torture.

The Present Day: Vice-President Cheney thinks waterboarding is necessary. President Bush double-talks his way around its use by US forces. Attorney General nominee Mike Mukasey refuses to say whether waterboarding is illegal or wrong or in anyway violates the laws of the United States. Senators Schumer and Feinstein are ready to roll over like beaten dogs and allow Mukasey's nomination to advance to the Senate floor despite his unwillingness to label an obviously illegal torture procedure exactly that.

Following in the footsteps of Inquisitors, Nazis, the Kempeitai, Pol Pot and African warlords. Welcome to George Bush's America.