Complexity Digest 2003.16 - 19.01

21-Apr-2003

Fighting "Terrorism" With Torture, BMJ Bookmark and Share

Abstract: Since 11 September 2001 public advocacy of torture no longer seems taboo. (...) techniques applied to Abu Zubaydah and other Al Qaeda suspects in US custody. This involved ventilation by nasal mask of a paralysed subject, with the ventilator turned off to provide transient suffocation whenever the interrogator was dissatisfied. These included deprivation of food, water, sleep, and light; covering subjects' heads with black hoods for hours at a time; (...) hooking them up to sensors during serial interrogations; and denial of medical attention. At Bagram "disorientation is a tool of interrogation and therefore a way of life."