Breaking The Will

The Bush administration approved the use of "waterboarding" on Al Qaeda detainees after receiving reports from government psychologists that it was "100 percent effective" in breaking the will of U.S. military personnel subjected to the technique during training, according to documents released today by a Senate Committee.

The Senate Armed Services report concludes that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques—including forcing detainees to stand naked, subjecting them to growling dogs and depriving them of sleep—were discussed by top members of the National Security Council and other senior administration officials inside the White House. Some officials expressed strong concerns about the legality of the methods. But the techniques were ultimately given the green light, based on government assessments that showed such methods were quick and effective in breaking down the resistance of U.S. military officers who were subjected to them in so-called Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE) classes.

"Use of the watering board resulted in student capitulation and compliance 100 percent of the time," wrote Jerald F. Ogrisseg, the Air Force's chief of psychology services, in a July 24, 2002 memo released as part of the Senate report. (Ogrisseg later testified he adviced his superiors that waterboarding would be "illegal" if actually used against detainees.) But the report concludes that the use of these techniques against Al Qaeda detainees "damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies and compromised our moral authority."

Waterboarding is a method of simulated drowning that involves strapping down a subject and pouring water into his nose and mouth. As the subject gasps for breath, the water enters his lungs, inducing extreme panic within minutes. These and other SERE techniques were developed from methods used by Chinese Communists against American soldiers during the Korean War. At the time, the United States denounced the Chinese for violating the Geneva Conventions and international law.

The idea behind SERE training was to teach U.S. military personnel how to resist harsh interrogation should they be captured by enemy soldiers fighting under the command of brutal regimes. But after September 11, SERE techniques were "reverse-engineered," and became a template for CIA and U.S. military officers trying to extract intelligence from high-value Qaeda detainees such as Khalid Shaykh Mohammed, according to the Senate Committee report.

"The message from the top was clear," said Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a statement accompanying the release of the panel's report. "It was appropriate to consider degrading and abusive techniques for use against detainees."

Much of the report, including the role top White House officials played in approving such methods, is based on material made public in two previous hearings by Levin's panel and other government reports. But it also includes some recently declassified documents, as well as new evidence showing how critical the use of SERE methods was in persuading senior officials to adopt interrogation techniques the U.S. government previously found strongly objectionable.