home

Torture Techniques

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Detainees
Posted on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 09:29:00 AM EST
Tags: torture (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit


It's one thing to read the memos. It's another to read how they were executed.

  • Nudity, sleep deprivation and dietary restrictions kept prisoners compliant and reminded them they had no control over their basic needs. Clothes and food could be used as rewards for cooperation.
  • Slapping prisoners on the face or abdomen was allowed. So was grabbing them forcefully by the collar or slamming them into a false wall, a technique called "walling" that had a goal of fear more than pain.

  • Water hoses were used to douse the prisoners for minutes at a time. The hoses were turned on and off as the interrogation continued.
  • Prisoners were put into one of three in "stress positions," such as sitting on the floor with legs out straight and arms raised in the air to cause discomfort.
  • At night, the detainees were shackled, standing naked or wearing a diaper. The length of sleep deprivation varied by prisoner but was authorized for up to 180 hours, or 7 1/2 days. Interrogation sessions ranged from 30 minutes to several hours and could be repeated as necessary and as approved by psychological and medical teams.
  • Justice Department lawyers said the CIA could place Zubaydah in a cramped confinement box. Because Zubaydah appeared afraid of insects, they also authorized interrogators to place him in a box and fill it box with caterpillars (that tactic ultimately was not used).

For photos, here are a few I found in 2006.

Now Obama plans on amnesty for the torturers, because they followed orders. How about punishing the people who gave the orders? Or at least removing their rewards? Former President Bush promoted torture memo author Jay Bybee to a federal appeals judgeship in 2002. He was confirmed in 2003 and still sits on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Here's what Bybee, whose chambers are in Las Vegas, had to say about himself in 2003:

"I would like my headstone to read, `He always tried to do the right thing,' " Judge Bybee said.

Will Spain step up to the plate? Not if the country's Attorney General gets his way...but he doesn't have the last word.

< Near "Infinitely Alterable" Intelligence | WaPo Editorial Calls For Torture Investigations >

  • Premium Ads

  • Blog Ads

  • Contribute To TalkLeft

    donate to TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Torture Techniques | 13 comments (13 topical)
    What's interesting . . . (5.00 / 2) (#2)
    by nycstray on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 01:05:53 AM EST
    is that all of the above, if adapted to pets, would be considered animal cruelty. Many are felony charges here. My Dot lived through "dietary restrictions" [half her optimum weight, law requires sufficient food and water], "walling" [inducing fear/abuse], "stress positions" [chained to a radiator in a basement to live in her own filth]. It's still a felony even if the dog/pet is human aggressive. That's just not an excuse.*

    I'm sorry, but it's just not ok to subject any living creature to any form of these abuses, to "pardon" it for whatever reason is just wrong. Morally, legally and spiritually.

    *granted, we don't get much in the way of support legally for animal abuse . . .

    Really Bybee? (5.00 / 2) (#3)
    by Socraticsilence on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 01:47:54 AM EST
    I wouldn't mind his headstone reading- Died in Prison while a waiting trial at the Hauge.

    Disgrace to the profession would be succinct. (none / 0) (#11)
    by Molly Bloom on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 10:28:37 AM EST


    [ Parent ]
    So sad (5.00 / 4) (#4)
    by caseyOR on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 01:57:16 AM EST
    I am so profoundly saddened by this. Yes, i am angry and outraged, too. But sadness overwhelms me.

    How did my country come to this point? The torture and the memos are horrific enough. The idea that the people responsible for all this will get off scott free is too much. My heart hurts.

    I lived through Nixon, and I lived through Reagan, and, while I hated what they did to the country, I always believed we would survive their administrations. With George W. Bush my fear has always been that he would destroy the country; that the damage would be so huge and so deep we would never recover.

    If Obama does not direct Holder to prosecute the lawyers and administration officials, if he insists on this "not dwelling on the past" nonsense, then the United States will have no moral authority in the world. We will never get it back. No one will trust us or believe anything we say.

    Remember that "cancer on the presidency" ? It is very close to stage 4. Will Obama opt for lifesaving treatment or will he hem and haw and wallow in denial while the moral center of the nation is eaten away?

    Careful not to get too deep into (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by inclusiveheart on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 07:47:04 AM EST
    the trap that was always set in the Bush Administration's rationale for torturing people.  They have always wanted to have a debate about which specific "techniques" are defined as torture.  

    If you read the treaties and statutes prohibiting torture the authors were always careful not to include a list of prohibited activities because they knew that sick people like Baybee would come along and figure out some sort of "technique" that was not exactly what was described in the definition and tweak the torture just enough so that it did not fall into a prosecutable category.  

    Just sayin'

    Apparently (none / 0) (#1)
    by andgarden on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 12:37:00 AM EST
    Bybee is licensed to practice in DC. What happens if a Federal Judge has his license revoked?

    Any members of the DC bar want to complain about him?

    I don't think anything (none / 0) (#9)
    by jbindc on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 08:41:43 AM EST
    There are no constitutional requirements to being a federal judge, so even if his law license were revoked, he would still be a judge with lifetime tenure. (Now, if that were to happen, Congress would then start impeachment proceedings, I'm sure).

    [ Parent ]
    I thought the more interesting question (none / 0) (#10)
    by Capt Howdy on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 09:01:27 AM EST
    was what happens if Spain went ahead, I heard last night by the way that that is not a completely dead issue, with their thing and we were in the position of having a sitting federal judge - a guy deciding federal cases - who could not leave the country or he would be arrested for war crimes.

    [ Parent ]
    Include the Dems (none / 0) (#5)
    by maddog on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 05:33:05 AM EST
    Include the democrats in all of this prosecution since intelligence committee members in both the house and senate knew about it an either did nothing or approved.  

    But you know it is all Bush's fault that this happened.

    Be careful of the unintended consequenses.

    It is interesting (5.00 / 5) (#6)
    by Steve M on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 06:00:31 AM EST
    how you can't seem to get past the idea that anything but partisanship could be behind the outrage.

    [ Parent ]
    "unintended"? (5.00 / 4) (#7)
    by Fabian on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 07:11:27 AM EST
    I fully intend that all complicit parties should be exposed.  I'm post partisan.  (Thanks DNC!)

    [ Parent ]
    Doesn't matter if they subscribe to the R or D (none / 0) (#12)
    by Inspector Gadget on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 02:25:49 PM EST
    politically. They did it, they face the consequences of their decisions.

    [ Parent ]
    I guess Obama will be offering a big apology to (none / 0) (#13)
    by jawbone on Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 07:46:32 PM EST
    all those Nazis we and other allied countries punished after WWII? After all, they were just following orders.... What about Demjanuk?  

    This kept running through my mind: Wow, now we say it's OK bcz the CIA guys were just following orders and relying on legal opinions from BushCo?

    I feel sick about this.

    Torture Techniques | 13 comments (13 topical)