|
|
Vertaal:
             
De loodslicht van memoranda op het gebruik van de CIA van de marteling van de slaapontbering
Maandag, 11 Mei, 2009
Door Molenaar Greg | Rapportering van Washington - aangezien President Obama vorige maand voorbereidingen trof om geheime memoranda op het gebruik van de CIA van strenge ondervragingsmethodes vrij te geven, handelde het Witte Huis een vlaag van het beroep van het laatste ogenblik af. Één kwam uit de vroegere CIA Directeur Michael V. Hayden, die disbelief uitdrukte dat het beleid bereid was om methodes bloot te stellen het later zou kunnen beslissen het vereiste. „Bent u die me vertellen dat in alle omstandigheden van bedreiging, u zich nooit zult mengen in de slaapcyclus van een gevangene?“ Hayden vroeg een hoogste ambtenaar van het Witte Huis, volgens bronnen vertrouwd met de uitwisseling. Van bij het begin, was de slaapontbering één van de belangrijkste elementen in het CIA- ondervragingsprogramma geweest, dat wordt gebruikt om onderbrekingsdozens veronderstelde terroristen te helpen, ver meer dan de hevigste benaderingen. En het is onder de methodes het agentschap het hardst vecht om te houden. De techniek wordt nu belemmerd door het verbod van President Obama's in Januari op ruwe ondervragingsmethodes, hoewel een werkgroep zijn gebruik samen met andere ondervragingsmethodes herziet het agentschap in de toekomst zou kunnen aanwenden. Wegens zijn doeltreffendheid - evenals de waarneming dat het dan waterboarding minder laakbaar was, hoofd-dichtslaat of gedwongen nudity - de slaapontbering kan als verleidende techniek worden gezien te herstellen. Maar de memoranda van de Afdeling van de Rechtvaardigheid die vorige maand door Obama worden vrijgegeven, evenals de informatie die door ambtenaren vertrouwd met het programma wordt verstrekt, wijzen erop dat de methode, die dwingende geketende gevangenen om, soms dagen op eind inhoudt te betekenen, controversiëler was binnen de V.S. intelligentie gemeenschap dan wijd het geweten was. Het rapport van het de inspecteursalgemeen van de CIA dat in 2004 wordt uitgegeven was kritieker van het gebruik van het agentschap van slaapontbering dan het van een andere methode naast het waterboarding was, volgens ambtenaren vertrouwd met het document, wegens hoe de techniek werd toegepast. De gevangenen hadden hun voeten shackled aan de vloer en hun handen cuffed dicht bij hun kinnen, volgens de memoranda van de Afdeling van de Rechtvaardigheid. De gevangenen waren bekleed slechts in diapers en toegestaan niet om te voeden. Een gevangene zou die om weg aan slaap begon af te drijven over overhellen en door zijn kettingen gevangen. De memoranda zeiden dat meer dan 25 van de gevangenen van de CIA aan slaapontbering werden onderworpen. Op één punt, mocht het agentschap gevangenen wakker houden zolang 11 dagen; the limit was later reduced to just over a week. According to the memos, medical personnel were to make sure prisoners weren’t injured. But a 2007 Red Cross report on the CIA program said that detainees’ wrists and ankles bore scars from their shackles. When detainees could no longer stand, they could be laid on the prison floor with their limbs “anchored to a far point on the floor in such a manner that the arms cannot be bent or used for balance or comfort,” a May 10, 2005, memo said. “The position is sufficiently uncomfortable to detainees to deprive them of unbroken sleep, while allowing their lower limbs to recover from the effects of standing,” it said. In the Red Cross report, prisoners said they were also subjected to loud music and repetitive noise. “I was kept sitting on a chair, shackled by hands and feet for two to three weeks,” said suspected Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, the first prisoner captured by the CIA, according to the Red Cross report. “If I started to fall asleep, a guard would come and spray water in my face.” In the Justice Department memos, sleep deprivation was described as part of a “baseline” phase of interrogation, categorized as less severe than other “corrective” or “coercive” methods. Within the CIA, sleep deprivation was seen as a method with the unique advantage of eroding prisoners’ will to resist without causing lasting harm. “Waterboarding was obviously the most controversial,” said a former senior U.S. government official who was briefed extensively on CIA interrogation operations. But “sleep deprivation is probably the most effective thing they had going.” Facing congressional efforts in 2005 and 2006 to block the use of certain techniques, CIA lawyers and Bush administration officials lobbied to keep a core set of methods, including sleep deprivation. In 2007, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling compelled the White House to bring the CIA program into compliance with the Geneva Convention, President Bush signed an executive order that outlined detainees’ rights to the “basic necessities of life.” The order listed “adequate food and water, shelter from the elements, necessary clothing” and protection from extreme heat and cold. But it made no mention of sleep as a basic necessity. Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said sleep deprivation multiplied the coercive power of other techniques that included face-slapping and confinement in small boxes. “It was viewed as a tool that enabled all the others,” said a former CIA official directly involved in the program. The former official, like others, described internal thinking on condition of anonymity. The Justice Department memos also cited research that suggested sleep deprivation was not harmful. “Experience with sleep deprivation shows that ’surprisingly, little seemed to go wrong with the subjects physically,’ ” said the May 10, 2005, Justice Department memo — one of many instances in which government lawyers cited scientific papers in asserting that the program was safe. But some authors of those studies have since said that the conclusions of their research were grossly misapplied. James Horne, director of the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in Britain, said he was never consulted by U.S. officials and didn’t know how his work was being used until the memos were released. “My response was shocked concern,” Horne said in an e-mail interview. Just because the pain of sleep deprivation “can’t be measured in terms of physical injury or appearance . . . does not mean that the mental anguish is not as bad.” Horne said that it was dangerous for the CIA to extrapolate from independent research in which subjects had gone for as long as a week without sleep, voluntarily, and were free to eat, rest, watch television or leave the research facility at any time. By contrast, CIA prisoners were subjected to major additional stresses that risk physical and mental collapse. “To claim that 180 hours is safe in these respects is nonsense,” Horne wrote in a separate online posting. Even if sleep deprivation succeeded in getting prisoners to talk, he said, “I would doubt whether the state of mind would be able to produce credible information, unaffected by delusion, fantasy or suggestibility.” Have Your Say: Memos shed light on CIA use of sleep deprivation torture Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
|
Video: IRobot Packbot action! Last post by loki @ 09:04 AM
Go to Forum
| Latest Topics
Raw Video: Police Slam Wrong Man Into a Wall, leaving him in a Coma Last post by loki @ 08:50 AM Was a Pentagon witness being instructed to say what she had witnessed? Last post by loki @ 08:43 AM Scum! Last post by paul w @ 05:27 AM 9/11 Citizen Investigation. Last post by paul w @ 02:21 AM article about the conspiracy theorists Last post by paul w @ 01:41 AM Caught in a Lie: US Uses Phosphorus Weapons in Afghanistan Last post by loki @ 11:39 PM  Email This Page To A Friend Latest Headlines
More Breaking News  Archive
|
TOP NEWS DISCUSSIONS |
LATEST NEWS DISCUSSIONS |
|
|
BNP councillor 'made up murders' TSSI raises concern over ID card scheme KBR, Halliburton Accused in Investor Suit of ‘Reign of Terror’ |
Lindsey commented on: KBR, Halliburton Accused in Investor Suit of ‘Reign of Terror’ I thought you might be interested in this letter written by Army Corps... Continue Reading & Reply Adrian Tawse commented on: TSSI raises concern over ID card scheme The ID card scheme, and primarily the ID database has clearly been designed by the Home Office... Continue Reading & Reply Victor commented on: BNP councillor ‘made up murders’ Dear Mr D. Tower, Come in Mr David Tower! You do make very valid points about the so called... Continue Reading & Reply Sam commented on: Nine-year-old boy gets shotgun licence I can see nothing wrong with that as long as he is supervised. My Son who is 8 goes beating and would... Continue Reading & Reply |
|
The views expressed in the RINF news wire and newsletter are the sole responsibility of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster. RINF.COM: Breaking News & Alternative Media is Copyleft - Copy & Distribute Freely. News Forum |
Loading ...
