O afogamento simulado (waterboarding) é uma forma de tortura na qual a pessoa é deitada de costas e imobilizada, com a cabeça inclinada para trás (a chamada "posição de Trendelenburg"), e água é lançada sobre a face e para dentro das vias respiratórias.[1] Por meio do sufocamento forçado e da inspiração de água, o torturado passa pelo processo de afogamento e é levado a acreditar que a sua morte é iminente.[2]
Diferentemente da prática de apenas submergir em água o rosto do torturado pela frente, o afogamento simulado provoca, quase de imediato, o reflexo faríngeo.[3] Embora nem sempre provoque danos físicos duradouros, o afogamento simulado inclui o risco de dor intensa, danos aos pulmões, dano cerebral causado pela falta de oxigênio, ferimentos (inclusive fraturas ósseas) causados quando o torturado se debate contra as amarras, e até mesmo a morte.[4] Os efeitos psicológicos podem perdurar por anos após o procedimento.[5]
It was terrifying," military psychologist Bryce Lefever is quoted as saying, "...you're strapped to an inclined gurney and you're in four-point restraint, your head is almost immobilized, and they pour water between your nose and your mouth, so if you're likely to breathe, you're going to get a lot of water. You go into an oxygen panic.
As the event unfolded, I was fully conscious of what was happening: I was being tortured.
Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.
Dr. Allen Keller, the director of the Bellevue/N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture, told me that he had treated a number of people who had been subjected to such forms of near-asphyxiation, and he argued that it was indeed torture. Some victims were still traumatized years later, he said.