ABC News has reported that a government official was voluntarily waterboarded (he survived, apparently none the worse for wear). In 2004, Daniel Levin “was the top Department of Justice official in charge of deciding which interrogation techniques could be used in the War on Terror” and “decided to experience” waterboarding “first-hand.”

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment about that,” Daniel Levin said in response to ABC News’ questions about his experience while seen…

wearing a nice suit and tie,

walking unassisted,

entering an expensive foreign car,

and even driving it away on his own.

Despite surviving waterboarding unharmed, ABC News reported it, “…learned [from an undisclosed source] that Levin told the White House that even though he knew he would not die, he found his experience terrifying.”

It has been widely reported that waterboarding, as it was used by the CIA, is not life threatening and only invokes the fear of drowning in the one being waterboarded. The CIA waterboarded three top-tier terrorists in 2002 and 2003 and its use is said to have prevented additional death and destruction after 3,000 died on 9/11, assisted the CIA in determining how al Qaeda operates, and identified many additional terrorists. Members of Congress were briefed on waterboarding as far back at 2002.

Unfortunately (in my humble opinion), the CIA stopped using waterboarding to interrogate terrorists in 2003 but at least one former senior U.S. Navy lawyer disagrees. That lawyer, who was never deployed during his career, is now the dean of law at a very liberal college. He regularly testifies before Congress alongside those representing the terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay and is often quoted by the mainstream media. He told ABC News that, “There’s no question it is torture. This is a technique by which an individual is strapped to a board, elevated by his feet and either dunked into water or water poured over his face over a towel or a blanket. It has been torture or considered torture since the Spanish Inquisition and ever since then.”

Now that he and I have put our spin on waterboarding, you can watch ABC News’ video report here (after their brief commercial).