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Bush era secret memos reveal torture techniques

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Bush-era secret memos reveal torture techniques

      

President Obama has released Bush-era secret memos that approve harsh CIA terror interrogations including the use of insects and waterboarding.

The graphic memos offer a stunning glimpse inside the covert interrogation program introduced after the September 11 attacks in 2001, which critics say equated to torture.

The memos reveal the use of dietary manipulation, forced nudity, facial and abdominal slaps, and the use of confined or 'stress positions' for al-Qaeda terror suspects.

In one technique known as 'walling', interrogators would push a suspect against a false wall, so his shoulder blades made a slamming noise and make him think the impact was greater than in reality.

Other techniques included waterboarding or simulated drowning, and sleep deprivation.

Another memo details a 'prototypical interrogation,' which began with a detainee stripped of his clothes, shackled, and hooded, 'with a walling collar over his head and around his neck'.

The memos also show interrogators asking for a ruling on whether the placing of a harmless insect in a cramped box with al-Qaeda terror suspect Abu Zubaida equated to torture.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama said that that those CIA officers who used harsh interrogation techniques on terror suspects would not be prosecuted.

Human rights groups reacted with dismay to Obama's decision to shield interrogators from prosecution.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said the immunity for government agents was 'one of the deepest disappointments' of the Obama administration.

SG/SME/MMA

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=91664&sectionid=3510203

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