Mukasy said that after an preliminary investigation into the destruction of videotapes of detainee interrogations by CIA personnel, the (Justice) Departments National Security Division and himself had concluded that there were bases for beginning a criminal investigation into the matter. He added that he will use the FBI in that context. On December 6, Michael Hayden director of the CIA, acknowledged that, in 2005, the agency destroyed a number of tapes that recorded controversial interrogation techniques by its personnel. Given the resulting scandal, on December 8 the Justice Department opened a preliminary investigation to determine whether there were sufficient aspects to justify a criminal investigation. Democratic representatives and human rights organizations have called for a full investigation, stating that the tapes probably contained acts of torture and that their destruction could be considered as obstructing justice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Waterboarding is a form of torture that consists of immobilizing a person on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages.Through forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences the process of drowning in a controlled environment and is made to believe that death is imminent. In contrast to merely submerging the head face-forward, waterboarding almost immediately elicits the gag reflex. Although waterboarding can be performed in ways that leave no lasting physical damage, it carries the risks of extreme pain, damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation, injuries (including broken bones) due to struggling against restraints, and even death. The psychological effects on victims of waterboarding can last for years after the procedure. Waterboarding has been used in interrogations at least as early as the Spanish Inquisition. It has been used for interrogation purposes, to obtain information, coerce confessions, punish, and intimidate. Today it is considered to be torture by a wide range of authorities, including legal experts, politicians, war veterans,intelligence officials,military judges, and human rights organizations. Waterboarding gained recent attention and notoriety in the United States when the press reported that the CIA had used waterboarding in the interrogation of certain extrajudicial prisoners and that the Justice Department had authorized this procedure.The new controversy surrounded the confirmed use of waterboarding by the United States government on alleged terrorists, and whether the practice was acceptable.
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