(CBS) U.S. officials confirm that water boarding -- a controversial interrogation technique in which prisoners are made to feel like they are drowning -- has been banned from the coercive techniques that can be used in questioning high-value prisoners, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

A handful of senior al Qaeda prisoners held by the Central Intelligence Agency in secret prisons, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, were subjected to water boarding in an effort to get information about terror plots against the United States.

The technique has not been used against any prisoners in the last couple years. Other coercive techniques -- such as stress positions and sleep deprivation -- can still be used.

Officially, the CIA never admitted it used water boarding. Therefore it also refuses to say whether it has been banned.

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