US President Barack Obama blows lid on CIA terror techniquesFont Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print From correspondents in Washington, USA | April 17, 2009
Article from: Agence France-Presse
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has blown the lid on harsh CIA terror interrogations approved by ex-president George W. Bush, including the use of insects, simulated drowning and sleep deprivation.
But despite releasing four partially blacked-out memos detailing the tactics, Mr Obama said operatives who carried out the interrogations would not be prosecuted, saying they acted on orders and were defending their country.
"This is a time for reflection, not retribution,'' Mr Obama said.
"We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But ... nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.''
The graphic memos offered a stunning glimpse inside the covert interrogation program introduced after the September 11 attacks in 2001, which critics say equated to torture.
The documents were written by Bush administration legal officials and argued that a long list of coercive techniques did not equal torture as they did not amount to the inflicting severe mental or physical pain.
The memos show interrogators asked for a ruling on whether the placing of a harmless insect in a cramped box with al-Qaeda terror suspect Abu Zubaydah equated to torture.
The technique "certainly does not cause physical pain'' and therefore could not be termed as torture, one of the memos said.
The memos also reveal the use of dietary manipulation, forced nudity, facial and abdominal slaps, and the use of confined or "stress positions'' for suspects.
In one technique known as "walling,'' interrogators could push a suspect against a false wall, so his shoulder blades make a slamming noise and make him think the impact is greater than in reality.
Similarly, techniques that included waterboarding or simulated drowning, walling and sleep deprivation also fell short of torture, the memos said.
Another memo details a 'prototypical interrogation,' which begins with a detainee stripped of his clothes, shackled, and hooded, "with the walling collar over his head and around his neck."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25345915-12335,00.html
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