Authorized Interrogation Techniques
If this isn't enough to make you sick then you're too ill for a cure.
The first -- the attention grab, involving the rough shaking of a prisoner.
Second -- the attention slap, an open-handed slap to the face.
Third -- belly slap, meant to cause temporary pain, but no internal injuries.
Fourth -- long-term standing and sleep deprivation, 40 hours at least, described as the most effective technique.
Fifth -- the cold room. Prisoners left naked in cells kept in the 50s and frequently doused with cold water.
The CIA sources say the sixth, and harshest, technique was called "water boarding," in which a prisoner's face was covered with cellophane, and water is poured over it (pictured above) -- meant to trigger an unbearable gag reflex.
It's been widely reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh were subjected to these techniques. Bush now wants to send them to Guantanamo for military trials. Under Bush's proposed rules, they could be excluded from being present at their own trials.
My interpretation and shorter version: Mohammed and Binalshibh are now vegetables but we'll never know because they will be tried without anyone ever seeing them.
Post-script: Why doesn't the mainstream media, in current reporting on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, write about what the U.S. did to his young sons?
The boys have been held by the Pakistani authorities but this weekend they were flown to America where they will be questioned about their father. Last night CIA interrogators confirmed that the boys were staying at a secret address where they were being encouraged to talk about their father's activities.
"We are handling them with kid gloves. After all, they are only little children," said one official, "but we need to know as much about their father's recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care."
Their father, Mohammed, 37, is being interrogated at the Bagram US military base in Afghanistan. He is being held in solitary confinement and subjected to "stress and duress"-style interrogation techniques. He has been told that his sons are being held and he is being encouraged to divulge future attacks against the West and talk about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.
"He has said very little so far," one CIA official said yesterday. "He sits in a trance-like state and recites verses from the Koran. But while he may claim to be a devout Muslim, we know he is fond of the Western-style fast life.
"His sons are important to him. The promise of their release and their return to Pakistan may be the psychological lever we need to break him."
Water-boarding apparently did the trick.
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.
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