US approved sleep depravation, nudity for Guantanamo inmates

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US approved sleep depravation, nudity for Guantanamo inmates: report

Sun May 9, 4:45 PM

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government last year approved interrogation techniques for use at its detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that permit reversing the normal sleep patterns of detainees and exposing them to heat, cold, loud music and bright lights.Citing unnamed defense officials, The Washington Post newspaper said a classified list of about 20 techniques was approved at the highest levels of the Pentagon and the Justice Department in April 2003, according to a report on its website.

The list represents the first official policy permitting interrogators to use physically and psychologically stressful methods, the paper added.

The use of any of these techniques requires the approval of senior Pentagon officials and, in some cases, of the defense secretary, according to the report. <snip>

<snip>The Central Intelligence Agency has its own guidelines used in detention centers.<snip>


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1520&ncid=1520&e=10&u=...

Intelligence 'requested' new procedures at Abu Ghraib, probe finds

Sat May 8, 5:38 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US military intelligence requested army police officers assigned to Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad to "change facility procedures" to make Iraqi detainees more cooperative during interrogation sessions, according to a secret army report. <snip>

A copy of the report was made available to AFP late Friday shortly after US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified to the Congressional armed services committees about the raging political scandal threatening his career.

"I find that ... military intelligence (MI) interrogators and other US government agency's (OGA) interrogators actively requested that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses," the general points out.

The "other US government agency" is a military euphemism reserved for the Central Intelligence Agency.

<snip>
The findings echo conclusions made earlier this year by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which said coercion was used by military intelligence at Abu Ghraib "in a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information." <snip>