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Memos: CIA Kept Prisoner Awake, Chained for 6 Days
(AP)
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In late 2007, a year after the Bush administration abandoned its harshest interrogation methods, CIA operatives used severe sleep deprivation tactics against a terror detainee twice, keeping him awake for 5 and then 6 straight days, with permission from government lawyers to go over the 4-day limit. Interrogators kept the unidentified detainee awake by forcing him to stand with his arms chained above heart level, jerking on the chains if he nodded out, according to an internal CIA report released this week.
The CIA kept the prisoner—most likely Mohammed Rahim al-Afghani, Osama bin Laden's translator and the only person known to be in CIA custody at that time—in diapers, allowing interrogators to keep him chained continuously without bathroom breaks. Officials noted in the documents that the sleepless prisoner remained "alert and oriented" and seemed to be "adhering to a well-developed, robust and capable resistance strategy."
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