The war between Langley and Capitol Hill
- By Zhao Jinglun
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 19, 2014
It is well known that the George W. Bush administration initiated in 2002 what it called "enhanced interrogation techniques" or "alternative set of procedures;" euphemisms for torture, used especially on "high value" al-Qaeda captives. CIA sources described a list of six such 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.
Long Time Standing: a technique described as among the most effective. The prisoner is forced to stand, handcuffed and with his feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours to cause exhaustion and sleep deprivation.
The Cold Cell: the prisoner is left to stand naked and doused with cold water. One prisoner died of hypothermia.
Waterboarding: the prisoner is bound to an inclined board, cellophane is wrapped over his face and water is poured over him.
Other techniques include exposing prisoners to extremely loud music, strobe lights, beatings, 24 hour non-stop interrogation sessions, and personal, often sexual, humiliation.
The CIA and special operations forces under Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) often snatch suspects off the street or from their homes and send them to "black sites" (secret prisons) for interrogation under torture, claiming that these prisoners are non-combatants and are not protected by the Geneva Convention.
Dianne Feinstein, who vigorously defended the illegal surveillance of the NSA, is now determined to expose the CIA's wrongdoing. She took the unusual step of taking to the Senate floor for more than half an hour to give a detailed account of the origin and development of the whole affair.
She said that the CIA appeared to have violated the Fourth Amendment, barring unreasonable search and seizures. She confirmed that the Justice Department was on the case. She said she has demanded an apology from the CIA, but has received no answer. In fact, Brennan has rejected Feinstein's allegations.
So the fight continues.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm
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