Practices

edit

The practice of enhanced interrogation techniques has/had at least three distinct aspects: the specific practices themselves, the immediate conditions of detention under which they were carried out (i.e. day-to-day conditions of detainees), and the settings in which they were employed (location, jurisdictions and they relative position of the detainee).

Locations

edit

Conditions of Detention

edit

Specific Practices

edit

Specific "enhanced interrogation techniques" have been detailed in the report of the International Committe for the Red Cross, as well as anecdotally elsewhere.

ICRC Report

edit

On March 15, 2009, Mark Danner provided a report in the New York Review of Books (with an abridged version in the New York Times) describing and commenting on the contents of a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody (43 pp., February 2007). Report... is a record of interviews with black site detainees, conducted between October 6 and 11 and December 4 and 14, 2006, after their transfer to Guantanomo.[1] (According to Danner, the report was marked "confidential" and was not previously made public before being made available to him.)

Danner provides excerpts of interviews with detainees, including Abu Zubaydah, Walid bin Attash, and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. According to Danner, the report contains sections on "methods of ill-treatment" including:

  1. suffocation by water
  2. prolonged stress standing
  3. beatings by use of a collar
  4. beating and kicking
  5. confinement in a box
  6. prolonged nudity
  7. sleep deprivation and use of loud music
  8. exposure to cold temperature/cold water
  9. prolonged use of handcuffs and shackles
  10. threats
  11. forced shaving
  12. deprivation/restricted provision of solid food.

Danner quotes the ICRC report as saying that, "in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."[1]

Other Reports of Specific Practices

edit

According to ABC News,[2], former and current CIA officials have come forward to reveal details of interrogation techniques authorized in the CIA. These include:

  1. The Attention Grab: The interrogator forcefully grabs the shirt front of the prisoner and shakes them
  2. Attention Slap: An open-handed slap to the face aimed at causing pain and triggering fear
  3. The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed slap to the abdomen. 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
  5. The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius)
  6. Waterboarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Material is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over them. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt

"Post-EIT" techniques

edit

On December 14, 2005, the Detainee Treatment Act was passed into law, specifically clarifying that interrogations techniques be limited to those explicitly authorized by the Army Field Manual.[3] On February 13, 2008 the US Senate, in a 51 to 45 vote, approved a bill limiting the number of techniques allowed to only "those interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual."[4]

The 19 interrogation methods are[5]:

  1. Direct Approach
  2. Incentive Approach
  3. Emotional-Love
  4. Emotional-Hate
  5. Emotional-Fear Up
  6. Emotional-Fear Down
  7. Emotional-Pride and Ego-Up
  8. Emotional-Pride and Ego-Down
  9. Emotional-Futility
  10. Other-We Know All
  11. Other-File and Dossier
  12. Other-Establish Your Identity
  13. Other-Repetition
  14. Other-Rapid Fire
  15. Other-Silent
  16. Other-Change of Scenery
  17. Other-Mutt and Jeff
  18. Other-False Flag
  19. Other-Separation

On January 22, 2009, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order requiring the CIA to use only the 19 interrogation methods outlined in the United States Army Field Manual "unless the Attorney General with appropriate consultation provides further guidance."

The order also provided that "The CIA shall close as expeditiously as possible any detention facilities that it currently operates and shall not operate any such detention facility in the future." [6]

Disclosures

edit

Enhanced interrogation techniques were authorized and promoted through a series of secret memos and classified military reporting structures. The sections below briefly detail the evolution of public disclosure about enhanced interrogation techniques. A more extensive discussion of the role of investigative reporting in bringing about disclosure of enhanced interrorgation techniques is provided in the black site article.

(1) "Secret" Period

edit

(2) "Acknowledged" Period

edit

(3) "Audited" Period

edit

(4) "Investigated" Period

edit

On March 5, 2009, Bloomberg News reported that the United States Senate intelligence committee was beginning a one-year inquiry in the CIA's detention program.[7]

References

edit

<references>

  1. ^ a b ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody International Committee of the Red Cross, Regional Delegation for United States and Canada, February 14, 2007
  2. ^ "CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described". ABC News. 18 November 2005.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2005/12/15/us-landmark-torture-ban-undercut
  4. ^ Senate backs intelligence bill restricting CIA interrogation tactics Mike Rosen-Molina, JURIST, February 13, 2008
  5. ^ http://www.army.mil/institution/armypublicaffairs/pdf/fm2-22-3.pdf
  6. ^ Obama issues torture ban Executive Order -- Ensuring Lawful Interrogations, The White House, January 20, 2009
  7. ^ James Rowley (2009-03-05). "CIA Prisons to Be Evaluated in One-Year Review by Senate Panel". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2009-03-15. mirror