From
ABC
News
Harsh interrogation techniques authorized by top officials of the CIA have
led to questionable confessions and the death of a detainee since the
techniques were first authorized in mid-March 2002, ABC News has been told
by former and current intelligence officers and supervisors.
They say they are revealing specific details of the techniques, and their
impact on confessions, because the public needs to know the direction their
agency has chosen. All gave their accounts on the condition that their names
and identities not be revealed. Portions of their accounts are corrobrated
by public statements of former CIA officers and by reports recently
published that cite a classified CIA Inspector General's report.
Other portions of their accounts echo the accounts of escaped prisoners from
one CIA prison in Afghanistan. They would not let you rest, day or night.
Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. Don't sleep. Don't lie on the floor,
one prisoner said through a translator. The detainees were also forced to
listen to rap artist Eminem's "Slim Shady" album. The music was so foreign
to them it made them frantic, sources said.
Contacted after the completion of the ABC News investigation, CIA officials
would neither confirm nor deny the accounts. They simply declined to
comment.
The CIA sources described a list of six "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"
instituted in mid-March 2002 and used, they said, on a dozen top al Qaeda
targets incarcerated in isolation at secret locations on military bases in
regions from Asia to Eastern Europe. According to the sources, only a
handful of CIA interrogators are trained and authorized to use the
techniques:
- The Attention Grab: The interrogator forcefully grabs the shirt
front of the prisoner and shakes him.
- Attention Slap: An open-handed slap aimed at causing pain and
triggering fear.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
The techniques are controversial among experienced intelligence agency and
military interrogators. Many feel that a confession obtained this way is an
unreliable tool. Two experienced officers have told ABC that there is little
to be gained by these techniques that could not be more effectively gained
by a methodical, careful, psychologically based interrogation. According to
a classified report prepared by the CIA Inspector General John Helgerwon and
issued in 2004, the techniques appeared to constitute cruel, and
degrading treatment under the (Geneva) convention, the New York Times
reported on Nov. 9, 2005.
It is bad interrogation. I mean you can get anyone to confess to anything
if the torture's bad enough, said former CIA officer Bob Baer.
According to CIA sources, Ibn al Shaykh al Libbi, after two weeks of
enhanced interrogation, made statements that were designed to tell the
interrogators what they wanted to hear. Sources say Al Libbi had been
subjected to each of the progressively harsher techniques in turn and
finally broke after being water boarded and then left to stand naked in his
cold cell overnight where he was doused with cold water at regular
intervals.
His statements became part of the basis for the Bush administration claims
that Iraq trained al Qaeda members to use biochemical weapons. Sources tell
ABC that it was later established that al Libbi had no knowledge of such
training or weapons and fabricated the statements because he was terrified
of further harsh treatment.
This is the problem with using the waterboard. They get so desperate that
they begin telling you what they think you want to hear, one source
said.
Sources told ABC that the techniques, while progressively aggressive, are
not deemed torture, and the debate among intelligence officers as to whether
they are effective should not be underestimated. There are many who feel
these techniques, properly supervised, are both valid and necessary, the
sources said. While harsh, they say, they are not torture and are reserved
only for the most important and most difficult prisoners.
According to the sources, when an interrogator wishes to use a particular
technique on a prisoner, the policy at the CIA is that each step of the
interrogation process must be signed off at the highest level — by the
deputy director for operations for the CIA. A cable must be sent and a reply
received each time a progressively harsher technique is used. The described
oversight appears tough but critics say it could be tougher. In reality,
sources said, there are few known instances when an approval has not been
granted. Still, even the toughest critics of the techniques say they are
relatively well monitored and limited in use.
Two sources also told ABC that the techniques — authorized for use by only a
handful of trained CIA officers — have been misapplied in at least one
instance. The sources said that in that case a young, untrained junior
officer caused the death of one detainee at a mud fort dubbed the "salt pit"
that is used as a prison. They say the death occurred when the prisoner was
left to stand naked throughout the harsh Afghanistan night after being
doused with cold water. He died, they say, of hypothermia.
According to the sources, a second CIA detainee died in Iraq and a third
detainee died following harsh interrogation by Department of Defense
personnel and contractors in Iraq. CIA sources said that in the DOD case,
the interrogation was harsh, but did not involve the CIA.
US military contractors liable to
military law
Still
mouthing words 20 minutes after lethal injection
From
