The Washington Post reports that executed American journalist James Foley and at least three other American hostages were waterboarded by ISIS militants during their captivity. According to the Post's source, ISIS "knew exactly how it was done."

The CIA adopted waterboarding as an interrogation technique after 9/11, and critics of the practice have long worried that eventually America's extremist enemies would use it, too. Waterboarding, as described by the Post, goes like this:

The victims of waterboarding are often strapped down on gurneys or benches while cold water is poured over a cloth covering their faces; they suffer the sensation of feeling they are drowning.

President Obama declared the practice torture when he first took office.

A U.S. official told the Post that the CIA's use of waterboarding and ISIS militants' use of waterboarding are not related:

ISIL is a group that routinely crucifies and beheads people. To suggest that there is any correlation between ISIL's brutality and past U.S. actions is ridiculous and feeds into their twisted propaganda.

[Image via AP]