>Wasn't this "torture" technique used to foil a recent bombing plot of airliners from Europe?
>I guess you can call it torture,....

I believe the U.S. called it torture when we prosecuted the Japanese for the practice during WWII. I believe that drove the cya-retro-legislation.

Hendrik Hertzberg writes in the New Yorker: "The 'dunk in water' they were talking about is waterboarding. It has been used by the Gestapo, the North Koreans and the Khmer Rouge. After the Second World War, a Japanese soldier was sentenced to 25 years' hard labor for using it on American prisoners. It is torture, and torture is not a no-brainer. It is a no-souler. The no-brainer is the choice on Election Day."