The journey into the CIA’s most extreme interrogation program began in darkness.
Blindfolded,hooded and wearing earmuffs, suspected terrorists were shackled andflown to secret interrogation centers. The buildings themselves werequiet, clinical and designed to fill prisoners with dread. Detaineeswere shaved, stripped and photographed nude.
Thequestioning began mildly, a shackled detainee facing a non-threateningCIA interrogator. But for detainees who refused to cooperate, theinterrogation escalated in terrifying ways.
Fewpeople have ever witnessed the process, which was designed to extractsecrets from “high value” suspects during the years after the Sept. 11,2001, terrorism attacks on the U.S. But Justice Department documents, which the Obama administration simultaneously released and repudiated Thursday, describe the process from darkness to waterboarding in skin-crawling detail.
Prisoners were naked, shackled and hooded to start theirinterrogation sessions. When the CIA interrogator removed the hood, thequestioning began. Whenever the prisoner resisted, the documentsoutlined a series of techniques the CIA could use to bring him back inline:
• Nudity, sleep deprivationand dietary restrictions kept prisoners compliant and reminded themthey had no control over their basic needs. Clothes and food could beused as rewards for cooperation.
• Slappingprisoners on the face or abdomen was allowed. So was grabbing themforcefully by the collar or slamming them into a false wall, atechnique called “walling” that had a goal of fear more than pain.
•Water hoses were used to douse the prisoners for minutes at a time. Thehoses were turned on and off as the interrogation continued.
•Prisoners were put into one of three in “stress positions,” such assitting on the floor with legs out straight and arms raised in the airto cause discomfort.
At night, the detaineeswere shackled, standing naked or wearing a diaper. The length of sleepdeprivation varied by prisoner but was authorized for up to 180 hours,or 7 1/2 days. Interrogationsessions ranged from 30 minutes to several hours and could be repeatedas necessary and as approved by psychological and medical teams.
Someof these techniques, such as stripping a detainee naked, depriving himof sleep and putting a hood over his head, are prohibited under theU.S. Army Field Manual. But in 2002, the Justice Department authorized CIA interrogators to step up the pressure even further on suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah.
Justice Department lawyerssaid the CIA could place Zubaydah in a cramped confinement box. BecauseZubaydah appeared afraid of insects, they also authorized interrogatorsto place him in a box and fill it box with caterpillars (that tacticultimately was not used).
Finally, the Justice Department authorized interrogators to take a step into what the United States now considers torture, waterboarding.
TheBush administration approved the use of waterboarding, a technique inwhich Zubaydah was strapped to a board, his feet raised above his head.His face was covered with a wet cloth as interrogators poured waterover it.
The body responds as if it is drowning, over and over as the process is repeated.
“We find that the use of the waterboard constitutes a threat of imminent death,” Justice Department attorneyswrote. “From the vantage point of any reasonable person undergoing thisprocedure in such circumstances, he would feel as if he is drowning atthe very moment of the procedure due to the uncontrollablephysiological sensation he is experiencing.”
Butattorneys decided that waterboarding caused “no pain or actual harmwhatsoever” and so did not meet the “severe pain and suffering”standard to be considered torture.
President Barack Obamahas ended the CIA’s interrogation program. CIA interrogators are nowrequired to follow Army guidelines, under which waterboarding and manyof the techniques listed above are prohibited.