Torture Report: The 13 Key Techniques

Waterboarding, 180-hour sleep deprivation among them
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 10, 2014 11:12 AM CST
Torture Report: The 13 Key Techniques
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate's newly released report on "enhanced interrogation" points to 13 different techniques used against detainees. They appear in a Justice Department memo to the CIA from May 2005, and the AP recounts them:

  1. Abdominal Slap: The interrogator slaps the detainee's belly with the back of his hand to prompt fear and humiliation.
  2. Attention Grasp: The interrogator hauls the detainee toward him by the collar, using both hands.
  3. Cramped Confinement: The detainee must stay in a box for an extended period: 18 hours if the box is large enough for the detainee to stand up, or 2 hours if the box requires curling up.
  4. Dietary Manipulation: Interrogators shift the detainee's meals from solid foods to liquid.
  5. Facial Hold: The interrogator holds the detainee by the cheeks so the detainee can't move his head.

  1. Facial Slap/Insult Slap: The detainee is slapped across the face as a means of surprise or humiliation.
  2. Nudity: The detainee is required to stand naked in front of other people.
  3. Stress Positions: The detainee must hold an uncomfortable position for a long period of time—for instance, he might be required to sit with his legs extended in front of him and his arms in the air.
  4. Sleep Deprivation: The detainee was required to stay awake for a maximum of 180 hours, resulting in "disturbing hallucinations" among five detainees. After he was deprived of sleep for 56 hours and began hallucinating, the CIA decided that one detainee wasn't involved in anti-US activities after all, the AP notes.
  5. Wall Standing: The detainee stands for an extended period of time with his arms extended and his fingers touching a wall.
  6. Walling: Detainees are slammed against a wall.
  7. Waterboarding: Water is poured over a detainee's face to simulate drowning while he is strapped to a board. The practice brought on vomiting and convulsions, the Senate report says.
  8. Water Dousing: Naked detainees sit on a bunched-up tarp as cold water is dumped on them.
A pair of psychologists were paid some $81 million to come up with such techniques, the Senate report says. (More Senate stories.)

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