Illustration by: Matt Mahurin
Bradbury’s answer: It depends on how much water is used. "Our office has advised the CIA when they proposed waterboarding, that the use of the procedure, subject to strict limitations and safeguards, was not torture, did not violate the Anti-Torture Statute," he said. The Japanese used "forced consumption of mass amounts of water," you see, and so because the U.S. uses an unspecified amount of water less than that of Imperial Japan , it’s legal.
Perfect. So the question is: How much water does the CIA have to force someone to ingest in order for it to be torture? I’m calling the Justice Department.