Turns Out U.S. Interrogators Went Waterboard Crazy in Gitmo

When we toured and wrote about Guantánamo Bay a couple of months ago, the military had already tossed out any pretense that waterboarding and other torture techniques had been used on inmates. But no one really knew how often the military and the CIA decided to violate the Geneva Conventions...

By Tim Elfrink

April 20, 2009

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When we toured and wrote about Guantánamo Bay a couple of months ago, the military had already tossed out any pretense that waterboarding and other torture techniques had been used on inmates. But no one really knew how often the military and the CIA decided to violate the Geneva Conventions and hundreds of years of U.S. tradition.

Well, we have our answer today, thanks to Justice Department memos ordered released by President Obama. And it's not pretty.

CIA interrogators waterboarded two top Al-Qaeda suspects held at Gitmo at least 266 times, according to the memos. Waterboarding, lest you forget, was the favored torture tool of Bush-era interrogators that simulates drowning.

The new memos shed light on a dark era in America's moral standing (you can read the full memos here), but don't look for any justice to come out of today's revelations.

At the same time he released the memos, Obama made it clear that interrogators using the methods would not be prosecuted for their actions.

Tim Elfrink is a former investigative reporter and managing editor for Miami New Times. He has won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

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