FOIA Reveals Details of CIA's Secret Prisons
Posted:
08/31/09
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the government last week released declassified files revealing insight to the CIA's interrogation methods under the Bush administration.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the CIA's policy of subjecting each prisoner to harsh treatment so that he would "perceive and value his personal welfare, comfort and immediate needs more than the information he is protecting."
A day in the life of a prisoner at these interrogation sites is outlined in the documents. The New York Times reported more than 100 prisoners passed through the program, including three who were subjected to waterboarding -- a tactic used to make them believe they would drown.
While the sites were designed to look like normal U.S. prisons, their operations were not. Most prisoners were stripped, shaved and photographed in the nude upon their arrival. White noise played 24 hours a day. They were shoved into walls. One man was threatened with an electric power drill being turned on and off near his body, the Washington Post reported.
However, while the documents outline the abuse of the CIA captives, they also describe the meticulous monitoring that medical and psychological doctors kept on each detainee. One source told the NYT: "Elaborate care went into figuring out the precise gradations of coercion."
The Los Angeles Times reported on the CIA's policy of subjecting each prisoner to harsh treatment so that he would "perceive and value his personal welfare, comfort and immediate needs more than the information he is protecting."
A day in the life of a prisoner at these interrogation sites is outlined in the documents. The New York Times reported more than 100 prisoners passed through the program, including three who were subjected to waterboarding -- a tactic used to make them believe they would drown.
While the sites were designed to look like normal U.S. prisons, their operations were not. Most prisoners were stripped, shaved and photographed in the nude upon their arrival. White noise played 24 hours a day. They were shoved into walls. One man was threatened with an electric power drill being turned on and off near his body, the Washington Post reported.
However, while the documents outline the abuse of the CIA captives, they also describe the meticulous monitoring that medical and psychological doctors kept on each detainee. One source told the NYT: "Elaborate care went into figuring out the precise gradations of coercion."