Poll: Waterboarding is a form of torture

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A new poll suggests a majority of U.S. citizens consider waterboarding to be a form of torture and a smaller majority said the procedure should be banned.

A total of 69 percent of those polled responded affirmatively when asked if they consider waterboarding to be a form of torture, while 29 percent said they believe it is not torture, CNN reported Tuesday.

However, only 58 percent said they think the U.S. government should not be allowed to use the method during interrogations of terrorism suspects. Forty percent said the government should be allowed to use the procedure.

Waterboarding, a process that involves the use of water to make restrained prisoners feel like they are drowning, has become the subject of debate in the United States amid the confirmation hearings of Michael Mukasey, President George Bush's nominee for attorney general. Mukasey said during the hearings that he finds waterboarding to be "repugnant," but he refused to say whether he considers the practice to be a form of torture.

The weekend telephone poll of 1,024 U.S. adults, conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corp., had a plus-or-minus 4.5 percent margin of error.