American Use of Torture
The Senate Intelligence Committee has just released a 600-page report on CIA’s use of torture (The report calls it “enhanced interrogation”) in the war on terror. The torture techniques used are both illegal and terrible. The CIA have used techniques that have been used by Japan during the Second World War. They have even used insects to torture the detainees, even though the report does not explain how these techniques are used. Furthermore, according to the report, the torture never gave any information that would help catch Osama Bin Laden.
Innocent people were tortured.
Of the 119 known detainees that CIA tortured, 26 were innocent of the crime they were accused for. Even if the CIA discovered that the captive hadn’t been involved in any terrorist attacks, were they still kept imprisoned for weeks, or months.[1]
The report also says that two of the CIA guards that were mistaken as captives, and who were tortured for approximately 24 hours before they were released.1 The guards were forced to stand, in order not to fall asleep. This is a common type of torture used by the CIA.
Previous reports claim that the technices used are nesesary to gather information about future terrorist attacks. However the new report says that the torture used never gave useful information. “The techniques failed to illicit detainee cooperation, or to produce accurate intelligence.”[1]
Old torture techniques.
Waterboarding was a common torture method used by Japan during the Second World War. It consists of sealing the victim, and place a wet piece of cloth over their face, while pouring water at their face. The torture method simulates drowning and suffocation. In previous reports, the CIA claimed that waterboarding does not cause any
physical harm, something some republicans also claim. However, the new report opposes these reports, and tells us of people starting to vomit and at least one prisoner: “Abu Sabaida became completely unresponsive with bubbles rising through his open mouth.”2
CIA also used other torture techniques like crushing the detainee’s bones in their legs, and forcing them to stand over longer periods. In some cases, the prisoners were forced to stay awake in a standing position for more than a week.
According to the report, the torture was done in a dungeon-like basement “CIA detainees at the COBALT detention facility were kept in complete darkness and constantly shackled in isolated cells with loud noise or music and only a bucket to use for human waste.”1 Furthermore, because of the lack of heat in some facilities, prisoners died because of the cold temperature.
As a form of protest, many detainees refused to eat. CIA’s reaction was to forcefeed the prisoners. This means forcing a tube through the body, and injecting liquid food through it. This process was used at least five times.
After the release of this report it is likely that the CIA will stop most of its cruel torturing methods. The torture facilities started two months after 9/11, and will probably take some time to shut down. That is why the torture will keep going for wile.
[1] http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/12/09/3601312/17-disgraceful-facts-contained-in-the-torture-report/
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6atIrnv5VEM
