Green Beret and former UFC fighter Tim Kennedy posted a video online of himself being waterboarded in an effort to prove that being waterboarded is not a form of torture.
The 41-minute video comes amid debate over President Trump’s nominee to head the CIA, Gina Haspel.
Haspel has been criticized for her role in waterboarding and other interrogation tactics throughout her career and is facing scrutiny – and a delay – during her confirmation process.
“The reason we are doing this … is for us to have a conversation. Right now, an amazing hero has been appointed to be director of the CIA and because of that, some of the things she has done are being attacked,” Kennedy said in the video.
Kennedy argues that waterboarding is not a form of torture.
“If I can change one person’s mind about what torture is and what I would do to protect American freedom, I will do this for years,” Kennedy said.
He created a video on Facebook of himself being doused in water with a cloth over his face.
“We did this yesterday for almost 45 minutes. The average pour was anywhere from 10 to 60 [seconds]. They wouldn’t tell me when they were going to put the towel on, they would just smash it on my face and start pouring,” Kennedy wrote. “You can’t hold your breath while they do it because the water runs down your sinuses. The water runs through your eyes, down your nose, and pools at the back of your throat. It was a baptism in freedom. It’s not torture! Hell, we had elk tacos and wine afterwards. Wake up, people.”
Kennedy defended himself on Twitter to those who criticized the video and said what he was doing was not waterboarding.
“Pretty sure I am intimately familiar with how it is done. I promise keeping your hands willingly out of the equation is much more difficult. Do in a basement, with little sleep, with crap food, it’s just water in the face from a bucket, on a slope,” he wrote on Twitter.
Pretty sure I am intimately familiar with how it is done. I promise keeping your hands willingly out of the equation is much more difficult. Do in a basement, with little sleep, with crap food, it’s still just water in the face from a bucket, on a slope. https://t.co/Zexfzn0poD
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) May 12, 2018
“I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal,” Haspel recently said. “I would absolutely not permit it.”
