After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the CIA opened a top-secret program to extract
actionable intel from suspected terrorists. They dubbed it the “enhanced interrogation technique
program,” but if we’re calling a spade a spade, it’s basically glorified torture.
In fact, a lot of the CIA’s interrogation techniques were revealed in a bombshell US Senate
report in 2014. Today, we’re rounding up the 10 Brutal Interrogation Techniques used by the CIA.
What's up, fact-natics! This is Discovery Amuse, serving up your daily dose of the
most outrageous, outlandish, and out-of-this-world fun facts!
Our top 1 entry is just so downright inhumane
that you might question whether it’s really a necessary evil. So stick around for that.
10: Wearing Nappies
A Tunisian man named Lotfi al-Arabi El Gherissi, who was formerly detained by the CIA for 13 years,
revealed in an interview in 2015 some of the gruesome methods he
suffered in the hands of the agency; one of which was being made to wear nappies.
Man: They stripped me off my clothes and made me
wear a diaper. They started beating me with sticks while I was hanging.
The CIA claimed that the main purpose of this was to humiliate the prisoners in secret black
sites and induce a sense of helplessness. One of the detainees said his diapers were fastened with
thick tape that caused irritation. Even worse, they were only changed about every four days.
Some would say that with these techniques, CIA has lost its humanity in the process of trying
to save it, but the agency maintains such methods don’t constitute torture.
Man: If it was torture, CIA would not have done it.
Keep watching ‘til number 1, and you be the judge whether or not that
interrogation technique crosses the line.
#9: Beating
You probably guessed that senseless beating will be part of this list. The CIA report
mentions facial holds, insult slaps, and attention grasps, which are all euphemisms for
clobbering terror suspects until they practically get a glimpse of the entrance to the afterlife.
Most prisoners said they were immediately subjected to this violence multiple times in a day
after their captivity. It was a seemingly endless cycle of being dragged to the verge of death and
back again, all in the name of making them own up to past crimes and admit to planned strikes.
One suspect said his skin was hanging off him by
the time the officers were done with him for the day.
#8: Walling
The torture report also mentioned interrogators slamming prisoners against the wall,
a process which they called walling.
Man: I remember also them putting a cloth around,
tying a cloth around my neck, and then they are punching me on the wall.
It was said that a concrete wall was erected so that officers can bash the detainees while
they have a collar placed around their necks. Later on, a CIA officer said a
plywood wall was immediately put up to replace the concrete. Not sure how much help that is.
Critics also question if these brutal tactics even yielded actionable intel
at all or the victims just gave them false information just for all the torture to stop.
Man: When EIT’s were used, we would say to the person,
we want information to stop operations, we know you don’t have all of it, but you have some of it.
#7: Hanging
A Pakistani man mistaken to be a member of a group plotting against
Washington once shared his experience living inside a CIA cell for a year.
Man: This ring, we would be sitting like this, with our hands and feet chained.
The 3 of them would be chained together. You would have to urinate on yourself.
The hanging sessions typically lasted up to an entire day, and the detainees' arms were
chained above their heads to a bar at the top of the room. In some cases, they could still touch
the ground with their feet, but others were lucky to even get their toes on it for some support.
Man; There is a tether anchored to the ceiling in the center of the detention cell. The detainee has
handcuffs and they’re attached to the tether
in a way that they can’t lie down or rest against the wall.
They only get taken down for interrogation and other forms of torture. This didn't mean
a period of reprieve from beating, though, as officials reportedly kept smashing them
with a baton and even pouring cold water over their barenaked bodies.
#6: Hypothermia
A suspected Afghan militant reportedly died of hypothermia
inside one of CIA's black sites in 2002. He was left in a cold cell,
stripped from the waist down, and doused in water, ultimately ending his life.
But this was not the only account of low temperatures and freezing water
being utilized to torture suspected terrorists.
A Tanzanian fisherman named Suleiman Abdullah Salim,
who was detained in a CIA a secret CIA black site for 5 years,
recounted how he repeatedly doused in icy water for while being grilled by officers. Afterward,
he was wrapped in plastic naked and kept inside the cold envelope of water for several minutes.
Salim: Guy he put me in water, he was beating me so much (jump to 5.48) After that, he take
me to interview, the big light he put me in the face. After than he take me again to the water.
#5: Waterboarding
Perhaps the most talked about interrogation tactic the CIA admitted to using on detained suspects,
waterboarding involves pouring water over a person’s face while covered with a cloth,
to mimic the sensation of drowning.
When Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens accepted the challenge of getting waterboarded,
he confirmed how the experience of breathing water could easily break someone.
Man: Everything completely goes on you when you’re breathing water,
you can’t think about anything else.
If 1 time is already excruciating, imagine being subjected to waterboarding multiple times!
9-11 suspect Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in 2002 and is currently held in the Gunatanamo
Bay detention camp in Cuba, testified about the various interrogation tactics he had to endure,
including being waterboarded 83 times.
VO: Abu Zabaydah repeatedly waterboarded, became
completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, said to be the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, was also subjected
to waterboarding 183 times. Aside from using cold water, the suspects were sometimes strapped
to a tilted board, with their legs placed above their head. The process was carried
out for about 40 seconds. It was known to have been repeated some times during interrogation.
man: I don’t think it’s the right thing to do, I don’t think it’s the wrong thing to do,
I think you can do it in a way that it constitutes torture,
I think you can do it in a way that it constitutes training.
#4: Mock Execution
The top secret internal CIA report finally released in 2009
also exposed how CIA interrogators played mind games with detainees by way of mock executions.
Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, the alleged mastermind behind the attack on the US destroyer Cole,
said that he was confronted with a gun and a power drill to make him spill the beans.
Man; CIA interrogators and staff officers brandished a gun in front of this guy in an
effort to frighten him and also took a power drill and went bzzz impying they’re gonna use it on him.
Interrogators would pretend to kill another prisoner in a separate cell, hoping the
gunshot would be the trigger for a confession. Officers also threatened harm to family members,
with one saying he would sexually abuse a detainee's mother. In another case,
an interrogator placed a pistol and operated a cordless drill
near a suspect's head. At the same time, the latter was blindfolded to mess with his brain.
#3: Confinement
You might think confinement is pretty standard for prisoners
all over the world, but the CIA took this method to another level.
Their torture tactic puts subjects inside blackout boxes the size of small dog crates with a width of
merely 21 inches and a depth and height of 2.5 feet. In 2015, BBC reporter Hilary Andersson
tried to experience first-hand how it feels to be caged inside one of these blackout boxes.
Hilary: It’s so stuffy in here I can hardly breathe. Stop let me out of here.
On three, stop, I can’t breathe, let me out.
Al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah reportedly spent 29
hours in that insanely small space. He was also confined in a coffin-shaped box
for 11 days and two hours in what was referred to as the aggressive interrogation phase.
#2: Sleep Deprivation
Some CIA detainees were allegedly forced to be awake for up to 180 hours
or seven and a half days, all while shackled at the wrists and standing on their feet.
It was made even worse by auditory overload, total darkness, and isolation.
Man: You can lose your sense of self within 36 hours, it’s really fast. And it’s really awful.
And the theory is that by doing that, you make someone more malleable. That’s all cockamamie.
The CIA officers would repeatedly beat them up to make sure they don't
wander off into dreamland. And since we're on the topic of deprivation,
the detainees had restricted diets thought to increase the other techniques’ effectiveness.
This meant making them eat only bland, commercial liquid meals instead of normal food.
Before we go to our number 1 pick, do us a solid and make sure
to smash the subscribe button and hit the notification bell!
Don’t forget to choose “all” so you won’t miss out on any of our latest life-changing,
boredom-busting content! And of course, be sure to turn on notifications in your app’s settings!
#1: Rectal Feeding
VO: At least 5 detainees were hydrated or fed
through a tube instated into the colon to give the interrogator total control over the detainee.
VO: 1 detainee had his lunch pureed and poured into his rectum. He eventually
attempted to cut his wrists, chew into his arm, and cut a vein in his foot.
Yes, it is exactly as disgusting and inhumane as it sounds.
At least 5 detainees allegedly got this "lunch tray" of pureed food infused straight
to their bums by CIA operatives. Rectal feeding, or “nutrient enema” was given
to prisoners who attempted hunger strikes. In many instances, the officers also shoved
water to the suspects' backsides to hijack their resistance to food and water intake.
According to CIA records, at least one detainee suffered from anal fissure and
chronic hemorrhoids due to these force rectal infusions.
So which of these torture tactics made your
stomach turn? Let us know in the comments section below.
Take home any of our exclusive gear by browsing our merch shelf
or clicking the link in the video description! And while you’re at it, take our quiz to find
out how you can earn extra cash online doing what you do best! Awesome, right!
Want more tales from the dark side? Then don’t miss our list of the 9
Most Gruesome Crimes That Were Never Solved.
‘Til then, stay compassionate, fact-natics, and see you in our next video!