November 20, 2005
US Torture Described
1. The Attention Grab: The interrogator forcefully grabs the shirt front of the prisoner and shakes him.
2. Attention Slap: An open-handed slap aimed at causing pain and triggering fear.
3. The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed slap to the stomach. The aim is to cause pain, but not internal injury. Doctors consulted advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.
4. Long Time Standing: This technique is described as among the most effective. Prisoners are forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation are effective in yielding confessions.
5. The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees. Throughout the time in the cell the prisoner is doused with cold water.
6. Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.
According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaeda's toughest prisoner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last between two and two-and-a-half minutes before begging to confess.
"The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law," said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch.
story | ABC News
~An e-mail friend observes: "Torture is still torture regardless of how you describe it. It's probably for the first time in history that a democratic country openly admits torturing people; and the lack of outrage by large number of the population teaches yet another lesson about how, for example, Nazi Germany worked: After all, under the Nazis, Germans were also made to believe their enemies were a terrible threat."
>related:
What Is Torture? --An Interactive Primer on American Interrogation
>for example: Water Boarding
Source: Guantanamo commanders requested permission to use "wet towel and dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation" in an Oct. 11, 2002, memo to the Pentagon. Rumsfeld denied permission in his memo of Dec. 2, 2002. The New York Times reported in May 2004 that water boarding was used by CIA officials to interrogate "high value" detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, held by the United States at secret locations.
Description: According to University of Wisconsin history professor Alfred McCoy, this technique was first developed by the French and published in a 16th - century interrogation manual. Practitioners of "water torture," or "question de l'eau," placed a piece of cloth over the victim's mouth and nose, and then poured water into the mouth to force the cloth down the victim's throat. The effect was to make breathing impossible, thus creating the psychological perception of drowning.
Physical, Psychological, or Other Effects: Severe mental suffering; no physical effects unless the tactic results in suffocation.
Locations Used: Unknown secret locations
Legal Opinion: The Geneva Conventions surely prohibit this method as torture and as a form of cruel or degrading treatment. The ICCPR and CAT also forbid water boarding because it inflicts severe mental suffering, as does the UCMJ and federal criminal law.
article By Emily Bazelon, Phillip Carter, and Dahlia Lithwick | Slate
~Slate's defense of US torture with links to Whitehouse legal memos, their dates and authors; a "taxonomy of torture" (example above) and military reports also with links to articles and sources.
Posted by Cieciel at November 20, 2005 10:30 PM