The water fills the hole in the saran wrap so that there is either water or vaccum in your mouth. The water pours into your sinuses and throat. You struggle to expel water periodically by building enough pressure in your lungs. With the saran wrap though each time I expelled water, I was able to draw in less air. Finally the lungs can no longer expel water and you begin to draw it up into your respiratory tract.

It seems that there is a point that is hardwired in us. When we draw water into our respiratory tract to this point we are no longer in control. All hell breaks loose. Instinct tells us we are dying.

I have never been more panicked in my whole life. Once your lungs are empty and collapsed and they start to draw fluid it is simply all over. You [b]know[b] you are dead and it's too late. Involuntary and total panic...

So, is it torture?

I'll put it this way. If I had the choice of being waterboarded by a third party or having my fingers smashed one at a time by a sledgehammer, I'd take the fingers, no question.

It's horrible, terrible, inhuman torture. I can hardly imagine worse. I'd prefer permanent damage and disability to experiencing it again. I'd give up anything, say anything, do anything."

Those fools who think that torture is permissible sometimes because it allegedly might save Americans lives - an immoral argument to begin with because it says that Americans' lives are more precious than other people's lives, including especially the completely innocent people who are being tortured and beaten to death by us daily - should think about this one. The White House had all of the information they say they need to stop terrorist attacks - they had it before 9/11 - and yet they did nothing with it!

What does it tell us about where things have come to when a leading member of the US Supreme Court is endorsing torture, when the country's chief legal officer refuses to call waterboarding torture, where the Vice-President declares that waterboarding is a "no-brainer," and where the opposition party refuses to filibuster these fascist bills and the leading candidates for president won't bring up the issue and fight it on the floor of the Senate - a simple vote for or against isn't enough, they should have filibustered this if they had any moral principles - because they're too busy trying to distract people and get themselves made the next president?"

I don't like any form of torture. I've had it [waterboarding] done in training- we had to do it as part of water survival- and it scares the hell out of you. You can't die from it, no way. But it can cause sever brain damage. I honestly think that doing this kind of thing only cements what people already think of you.

I wouldn't call waterboarding torture. But it's still something we shouldn't do. We're better than that. From everything that's happened in the last hundred years we should know better by now. Plus, torture doesn't work. And it's grotesque! It's better to give insurgents medical care and food. You're more likely to get the answers you're looking for that way."